On the Money Transcript

Category: On the Money Transcript

It’s Saturday morning <Inaudible> everybody, I am Carl Cassandra. This is On The Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO. Gary Abley, Joe Bert, good morning gentlemen!

Good morning.

Good morning.

How are you guys today?

Doing great.

Wonderful. Beautiful weather out there.

It absolutely is.

Time to be in Florida, baby.

It’s a good day to tailgate if you’re headed out.

<Inaudible>.

We’re going to continue to entertain you on your drive over here on News 965 WDBO’s Ask the Experts weekend with what Joe?

Well, Gary and I are just talking about anything that’s on your mind regarding your personal finances. Week in and week out, Gary and I and the other certified financial planners at CFG work with our clients to show them what they need to do now. Then they’ll look back 5 or 10 years from now and say gee, I wish I had known, or gee, I wish somebody had told me about that. So that’s what we do, we do financial planning for a fee, but on Saturday morning we do it absolutely for free. So if you have any questions regarding your personal finances, how your decisions might revolve around things like stocks and bonds and your 401k and an IRA and life insurance and reverse mortgages and annuities and real estate, and all that and more. Gary and I are here, and the good news is Gary is not only a certified financial planner professional, he’s also a CPA.

Oh.

Yes, so he has an extra credential, the best that we have.

<Inaudible>

Well, he’s qualified, qualified to answer that as well. We are here to answer your questions, and the good news for you is we are live in the studio, and the lines are absolutely wide open, and if you have any questions all you have to do is pick up the phone and dial these magic numbers.

844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Yeah, you’re right about being live, you know. It’s December 2nd, UCF <sp?> is playing today. How can we record this three weeks ago?

That’s correct, we are live.

We are live. We’re always. The Certified Financial Group never takes a Saturday off.

We don’t, I don’t think we’ve ever done a best of <?> show.

Well, your entire team is able to rotate between all the days, so everybody gets time off.

My poor Joe is here every week.

Well, we are committed. Some people say we should be committed, but we are committed.

We are.

Well again, the number to dial is 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. I have a feeling Gary Abley is going to get a lot of questions coming up as it’s already December, it’s December 2nd. It’s the last month to get your finances in order before the taxes come, so if there’s any last minute things you got to do before the end of the year or any questions you may have, that’s what Gary’s here for. 844-220-0965. We also have the text machine up and running as well. 21232. Just keep that to about 160 characters, that’s all we can see on our screen here. We don’t want your message to get cut off and then we miss some information, give you the wrong question. It’s going to be a quick question, text is perfect. 21232, but if it requires a little bit more of a conversation that’s what the phone number is for, and that phone number is 844-220-0965. Alright, let’s get started with today’s topic, how to pay for the hurricane damage.

Cash.

Credit card.

Yeah, I think that’s <Inaudible>

I don’t have that. What’s the next best option?

Well, we’ve been trying to get a roofing company out to our house to look at the damage for quite a while, but the good news is because —

Any luck there, by the way?

Well, not yet, but we keep walking the dog and talking to the different roofers in our area, see if we can snag one of them. In fact Beth is doing that here a little bit later this morning. Anyway, a lot of the sustained damage, whether it be to fence, your roof, maybe knock out windows, maybe cars.

Screen enclosures.

Screen enclosures, big losses there. So fortunately our government has relaxed some of the rules regarding casualty losses. So normally, you’ve got to itemize to take a deduction for that kind of a loss, and that has changed. Normally, you have to get above 10% of your adjusted gross income, and that has changed. Those are two beautiful changes for us who live in a federally declared disaster area, because that’s what it takes in order to make these deductions easier.

So let’s back up a little bit. For those folks that don’t do their own taxes or might not be familiar with the terminology in adjusted gross income and the 10% threshold, let’s take an example. Let’s say my adjusted gross income is $60,000. I just pick a number, and we have this 10% threshold. So what’s that mean for me as a $60,000 adjusted gross. Now adjusted gross income is the amount of income that shows up on your 1040 on the bottom there after you’ve —

Bottom of page one, <Inaudible>

After some deductions for IRAs, HSAs, things like that.

Right, right, okay.

So in essence, in your case earning 60,000, you would number one have to itemize. So let’s say you’re married filing joint, which you are. You would have a standard deduction typically of around 12,000. So you would have to have itemized deductions above 12,000 in order to itemize, right. And then on top of that, your loss would have to have been at least or greater than 10% of the 60,000 adjusted gross. So in other words, you would need losses above 6,000 and you would need itemized deductions above 12,000, roughly. So most people, unfortunately, can’t deduct it because of this 10% limit. So, our government has graciously for those of us in Florida and Texas has suspended that 10% rule and has also suspended the rule as it relates to Harvey and Irma for having to itemize.

Aha.

In addition, you’re able to go backwards to your 2016 return. So we know this hurricane just happened this year, but the government is saying hey, some tax payers may need some money now, so let’s allowed them to deduct this on a return that’s already been filed so they can get an immediate refund.

So I can get a refund on my 2016 taxes, even though I may have gotten a refund on 2016 I can reach back and get even more.

Exactly. You file a 1040-X, which is an amended return. Now you have an option. You can go back to 2016 or you can wait until your 2017 return is done. Now, why would you want to wait until 2017? You would if you were in a much higher tax bracket, right?

Right.

If you’re 2016, you were in a low tax bracket, we’ll you’d decide to deduct these losses in 2017. If you’re in a higher bracket in 2016, maybe you just retired in 2017, right?

Right.

You would go ahead and amend your 2016 return.

There you go. So it’s a way to get some money in your pocket right now.

Right, now in addition —

Well, not right now, we have to file your taxes first.

You’ve got to file your taxes, yeah. But in addition, they’re allowing you to pull money from your IRA or 401k and to pay this amount of money over a three year period, so over the next three returns — say 2018, 2019, 2020, for example, and allowing you to pay back that money into your IRA. So there’s a lot of pros and cons to that.

How about the 10% penalty?

Well, they’re going to waive the 10% penalty.

Aha.

Alright, so now a few people have called us and they’ve asked us hey, should I pull money out of my IRA to pay for my roof? What we really have to examine is if you don’t have the money right now to pay for that roof, how are you going to have the money to pay for that roof over the next three years. In other words, to get that money back into your IRA?

So you don’t have the penalty, or don’t have the taxes.

Right. So they’re not making this withdrawal from your IRA tax-free, they’re just simply making it penalty-free.

And you have three years in which to pay it back into the IRA to avoid the taxation.

Right, then what you’d have to do is file an amended return, right, so that you could get back the taxes you already paid. So it’s a little complicated, but for anybody out there listening to us who’s had hurricane damage, which is quite a bit of us, it’s a good thing to talk to your CPA about that this filing year and understand if you do get insurance proceeds — so let’s say just as an example you have a loss of 15,000, you had a $5,000 deductible. If the insurance company is paying 10,000 above your deductible, then your loss is really only that 5,000, right?

Right.

Right.

So you can’t deduct what the insure company is reimbursing.

Right.

But anyway, that’s a nice — it’s a nice new law, and I think there’s some complaints out there that this didn’t happen to the victims of Sandy and, well —

Matthew was in October, right?

Is this Irma and —

Right, Irma and — what’s the other one, I can’t think of it.

Irma and —

This year?

Yeah, this year, what are the —

Harvey.

Harvey! Thank you.

<Inaudible>

I was thinking — are you thinking of the local ones, or I guess Harvey was Houston, yeah.

Houston, yeah.

So anyway, it’s great for people if you’re in Florida who’s sustained some damage.

Yes, there you go.

Alright. Good to know.

That’s a lot, I mean — is there a website I can go back and re-read that if I was driving down the road and I think I missed something?

Actually, what you can do is contact our office and we’ll find something we can send you. So just contact Gary.

Yeah, I can actually send you a video. I was interviewed on Fox for that.

There you go, there you go.

Could be a little selling <Inaudible>.

That was a lot there, Gary, that was a lot of good information in there, a lot of good details.

This is the problem letting a CPA talk, you know.

Well that’s the kind of stuff that we do as planners. People think we’re just in the investment business, we do planning first and foremost and those are all the things that you want to look at and you want to help people manage their money, and then we talked about what you need to do to invest your money so you don’t run out of money when you’re 87 years old.

Gary’s — any tax questions as well <Inaudible>.

As long as we’re on taxes, Joe, why shouldn’t somebody buy a mutual fund in December?

Well, because — many people aren’t aware of this, they’ve seen the value of their mutual funds go up over the course of the year, and the value of that mutual fund often times has what we call embedded gains, capital gains throughout the year that manager is buying and selling and hopefully creating a profit, so those gains are embedded in the value or the price of the fund, as well as any dividends that might have been paid by the underlying investments that the mutual fund owns. So, over the course of the year the value of those shares is going up and you see a nice big increase in — maybe it was $15 a share in January, now it’s $20 a share because you’ve got some embedded gains in addition to the increase in the underlying value of the stocks.

Right.

But then what happens in December when —

Well, you get the mutual funds will declare capital gains distributions and dividends, and you will have to pay taxes. So the best way to understand this is maybe through an example. I remember years ago, I think it was ’95. I think that was a really good tax year, and I had a client that had invested in a Fidelity Magellan Fund.

Oh.

That thing had a high turnover in ’95, and they bought it in December, they put 100,000 into it roughly, and tax return comes due the following year, calculate things out to ’96 and it turns out that about $30,000 of distributions we had to pay taxes.

Huh.

<Inaudible> pay taxes.

And —

And they didn’t earn it!

Well, they didn’t spend it.

Because they just bought it.

They didn’t spend it — oh they bought it, <Inaudible>.

So what happened was in the following year, they had to pay taxes on 30,000 they didn’t earn, which means they — and they were in a high bracket, they had to pay 12,000 in taxes. So what does that mean? They had to sell the fund they just bought for 100,000 to raise the 12,000 in taxes. Now they’ve got an investment of 88,000.

Ouch.

So it’s really important to look at that. There are other options. If people said I want to get into the market, well you can buy an exchange-traded fund, that would eliminate that worry of capital gains distributions.

Right.

So just be careful out there.

Your advisor needs to know what he or she is doing, particularly in the last quarter of the year because you’re paying for gains that you’re not really going to receive. One of the comments that we often hear from clients that they have — they get the 1099 and they’ve got to pay taxes on those dividends <Inaudible>. Where’s this money, I never saw it, I never got it, I never spent it! Where is it? This isn’t fair, I’m paying taxes on money I’m not getting! And really what happens is when those capital gains and dividends are reinvested, you’re buying more shares, the share price drops, but at the end of the day you’re in the same place in terms of value. But you want to be careful about buying that stuff, particularly in the fourth quarter because you’re paying for gains that you really didn’t get.

That’s right.

That’s interesting, so January, that’s the time we want to buy mutual funds.

Well, you know it’s going to be interesting in January if this tax bill passes, and people <Inaudible>

Which apparently last night it did.

Well, it passed the Senate and now it’s got to go to committee. They’ll iron some things out, but I think it bodes well for the early — at least the early part of 2018.

Okay, well that’s good.

844-220-0965 is the number. If you want to ask Gary Abley or Joe Bert a question, the Oracle of Orlando, Joe Bert in the studio here answering your questions. 844-220-0965. Or you could text us to 21232. We are planning tomorrow —

Today!

With the Certified Financial Group. Time to get the three big things you need to know.

Information presented on this program is believed to be factual and up to date, but we do not guarantee its accuracy and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. Discussions and answers to questions do not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice, but it’s limited to the dissemination of general information. A professional advisor should be consulted before implementing any of the options presented. Certified Advisory Corp is registered as an investment advisor with the SEC and only transacts business in states where it is properly registered, or is excluded, or is exempted from registration requirements.

This hour was paid for by the host and does not reflect the opinion of News 965.

Is this leading to information that could implicate someone like Kushner or Donald Trump Jr.?

This is where Orlando turns first for the latest developments on the Trump White House. News 965 WDBO.

It’s 9:25 <?> at News 965 WDBO. This is On The Money with the Certified Financial Group. Joe Bert, Gary Abley live here in the studio taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. We’re three and a half minutes away from the latest news, weather and traffic with Dave Wall over there in the News 965 newsroom. Text line is open as well, 21232. That’s 21232, just keep it to about 160 characters, that’s all we can see on our screen. We had a comment here during the break here Joe. This is just a comment, it’s not a question from the listener. With the irrational exuberance in the stock market in Bitcoin, this has bubble written all over it.

I don’t think it’s an irrational exuberance in the stock market, although the stock market has certainly reached recent highs, if you look at multiples and earnings. People — it’s not like it’s going up <Inaudible> — it’s going up meteorically, if you will, but in that short period of time. It’s been over a year now.

One year, yeah.

And gradual increases.

Some people think —

That one year is a long — short period of time.

<Inaudible> certain but you have to look at the crummy year we came off of before, and so all things kind of — we’re getting the gains that we didn’t get in previous times, and thing have a way of reverting to the mean. As I tell all my clients, take the gains when you get them because you’re going to give some of them back. You can never keep them all forever, but I think the irrational exuberance in Bitcoin, that’s there.

Bitcoin seems to be a more popular, popular topic.

Cryptocurrency, not only Bitcoins but there’s other copiers out there.

Your thoughts on Bitcoin?

I’ll let you handle this one, Joe.

Well, in fact we have just run up against the clock here. If anybody wants to know about how Bitcoin works, go to our Facebook page, Certified Financial Group on Facebook, and I’ve posted an article from Business Insider that explains really how Bitcoin works, how you can participate in Bitcoin. I’m not recommending it.

It allows you to right there while you’re having dinner or in the restaurant and you pull up your iPhone and you want to buy some Bitcoin or sell some Bitcoin and you can play games with it, it’s crazy. It’s absolutely nutso, and we don’t recommend that as an investment. It’s certainly speculation, but it’s certainly caught public’s attention. Now there’s hedge funds that are speculating in it and mutual funds and everybody wants to get in on the ground floor.

Insurance.

Bitcoin <Inaudible> no question about that.

I think it’s nutso, but.

Alright, are you guys going to do a workshop on Bitcoin maybe one year?

I don’t think so.

No, <Inaudible>.

Not by me, anyway.

Well what are you going to do on the workshops coming up here?

Well actually, I think our next workshop is Know Your Number, Know When You Can Retire. It’s January — what’s the date on that?

January 6th.

January 6th.

And you’re doing it!

I am doing it, it’s a Saturday morning 9:00 to 11:00. So we’re looking forward to seeing some folks there. What we talk about in that particular workshop — it used to be called Will You Outlive Your Money, but we were told we can’t use that term and so I guess I shouldn’t even say that term. But anyway, apparently that’s <Inaudible>.

Take it back.

But that’s the idea, that as we want people to know comfortably that they are not going to run out of resources in retirement. So the only way to really do that is to calculate the lump sum of money you need at retirement, and to know at a reasonable withdrawal rate, which we think is 4%, you won’t outlive your resources.

And you cover all that, it’s absolutely free at our office in Meltomon Springs, if you want more information go to our website, financialgroup.com. Financialgroup.com, and click on Workshops, you can make a reservation right there online. Hope to see you there January 6th.

Alright, it’s always a Bitcoin joke. Alright, 844-220-0965 is the number you can dial us up. We’ve got two people on the line, we’ll get to those on the other side. If you want to be behind them, 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. We are planning tomorrow —

Today!

Joe Bert and Gary Abley from the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO.

And welcome back, this is On The Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 965, WDBO, <Inaudible> first weekend. Joe Bert, Gary Abley live here in the studio. Taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. Joe, for anybody that may have joined us during the latest news, weather and traffic, what have you answered on the radio today?

Gary Abley and I here to talk about what’s on your mind regarding your personal finances. As we go through life, we try some of this, try some of that, wake up when we’re 55 years old, look across the table at Loretta and say Loretta, you know the paycheck’s going to stop and how are we going to convert that IRA and 401k and that annuity and all that stuff we bought into income? That’s what we talked about. So we do day in and day out, Certified Financial Group for a fee, but on Saturday morning Gary and I are here absolutely free. So if you have any questions about those kinds of topics, mutual funds and your 401k and IRA and all that stuff, pick up the phone and call.

844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. Just like John in Merritt Island has done. John, you’re kicking us off. You’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hey John, good morning.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure.

I have a tax question regarding the sale of a home. Earlier this year, lost my dad. And in preparation for his care, we had come to the decision that we had to sell the home. So we had the home listed, had a contract, and as that progressed, had a concern that he was going to pass before the closing. We executed a quick claim to put the home in my name. He subsequently died, and then I did the closing to sell the home after his death. So my question is, what tax implication does that hold for me for this year.

Most likely, no tax implication. But I want to clarify something. The property was transferred to your name prior to death.

Correct.

Okay, so what happens is you get a step up in basis to fair market value for that property. So when you then subsequently sold the property, there would be no gain allocable to you. So you would not have any tax issue at all on that sale.

And then so when I do my taxes, then I will show the sale of the property on my return, correct.

If you were the owner, correct.

Yes, okay, good.

Yup.

Alright, that does it.

Alright, great, Jon. Thank you for calling, and I’m sorry for your loss.

Thank you very much.

Bye Jon, thanks so much for the phone call. Let’s go to our old friend, Sofia in Sanford. Sofia, go ahead, you’re on the Certified Financial Group here on WDBL.

Sofia!

Good morning Sofia.

Hello, <Inaudible> I, my last name is Procrastinator. I called once before.

Yup.

I remember, I remember.

Oh yeah.

How can we help you?

And, too bad I didn’t come in there 20 years ago.

It’s never too late, Sofia.

I know. I still plan to come, and <Background Noise>

And I think I talked to you, Sofia, on the phone once, too. Anyway, <Background Noise> alright, what’s your question.

Here’s the question. I may have to come in next week or something. But it’s a time factor. I found this place that I’ve always wanted to live in this little area. And I have two other places. And I have two other places. So that’s a — anyway, it’s a little house and I like it. And the guy is nice, he wants to sell it. Let’s say it’s $100,000. Now, I have $100,000 cash, and I have a mutual fund, $100,000, and I have an IRA, $100,000. And I really don’t want to get a mortgage because I don’t have an income. I mean, finance, what I’m saying.

Okay, sure. Now let me ask you — I understood.

I want to buy it. <Inaudible> yeah if I was 40 years old, I’d buy four houses and put 25,000 down, but I’m 66. So If I really wanted, I mean who knows how long I’m going to live, why not use — which money would you take from to buy it outright.

So, I would either use the cash, or the mutual fund if that’s not in IRA. So I think you mentioned you have three separate buckets of money. Cash of 100, mutual fund of 100, an IRA roughly of 100. So I would either take it from your cash, and that was probably what I would do. Or, I would take it from your mutual fund and cash, maybe 50/50. So we would want to look at your overall allocation, how much equity would you have, relative to your outstanding net worth, after the purchase. But in general, I would use not your IRA, save that IRA for later. Keeping in mind, anything you take out of that IRA will be subject to tax. Now, I think I remember chatting at one point, so there may even be an opportunity to take money from your IRA, potentially without a tax effect, if, for example, our viewers should know this, just general advice, sometimes we find ourselves maybe in between work or we’re retired but not taking Social Security, and clearly, you might want to take, if you were a couple in that situation, 20,000 out of your IRA because you pay absolutely no income tax if you had no other income. Right. So why not get money out of that IRA, and use that money if you’re not going to pay any income tax because later on, when you start taking Social Security, you may be in a tax situation. So I would take it from —

Let me ask you a question. Hello?

Sure, go ahead.

Go ahead.

Oh, I wanted to ask a question. The mutual funds, I’ve had this one since 1984. If it’s high right now, I mean, all of them, I guess.

All of them, sure.

So, wouldn’t it be better to take, just go ahead and sell the mutual fund. And this is my problem. Because when I talk to them one time, they said that well, you paid capital gains over the year, you may not have to pay anything. I mean, wouldn’t that — you see what I’m saying. If I take the money off the mutual fund, and just sell it, you know.

That could be, that could very well be a good choice, and I think to answer your question, I think we would want to look at your overall allocation of equity and fixed income after the purchase. So that’s a good thing to just give a holler on, and we can help you with that.

Okay.

Alrighty, thank you so much fir the phone call. Gary, <Inaudible> phone number to reach you on Monday morning.

Sure, that’s 407-869-9800.

Alright, 844-220-0965 is the number to jump in on the conversation. Larry in Orlando is up next. Larry, you’re on with the certified financial group here on WDBO.

Good morning, Larry.

Good morn. Thank you for taking my call. I’d like a little further clarification on the hurricane catastrophic expenses. So you were talking about tax year 17. If those losses are going to be realized in 18, how is that going to be handled.

Well that’s a great question. And I’m going to say, Larry, that that brings up an interesting point, because sometimes, we have these losses, but we have no idea how much they are because we can’t get a roofer out until maybe 18. And so one of the things that our listeners want to make sure that they do is because the statute of limitations is typically three years. So, if, for example, you don’t know the actual loss, you can file a form with the Internal Revenue Service that basically puts them on notice that you intend to amend your return for a casualty loss, and you explain the circumstances. It can be as simple as a letter that says look, I’ve sustained losses. However, I don’t know how to calculate it yet. I think they might be in the $30,000 to $50,000 range, but when I know the actual realized losses, once I pay for these repairs, I intend on amending my 2016 return. By doing that, by putting the Internal Revenue Service on notice, you will not have an issue with the statute of limitations, right, because you’re basically putting them on notice to say hey, I’m going to have a loss, but I can’t calculate it yet. And so, does that answer the question, Larry?

Yeah, I think it does, specifically, my insurance company has given me an estimate, but exactly like you said, <Background Noise>

Yeah, you can’t calculate it.

<Background Noise>, roofers, I have other people coming out that haven’t made it yet, and until the dust settles, I don’t know exactly where I’m going to be on the whole thing.

Yeah, and for many people, this could be a matter of years, depending on when you can get the contractors out. So just talk to your tax preparer and I would recommend using a licensed person. Either a certified public accountant or at least an enrolled agent to help you with this because you don’t want to lose out on this deduction because of time going by.

Okay. Thank you very much.

You’re very welcome.

Alright there, thanks for the call.

Hi, Larry in Orlando, if you want to <Inaudible> Larry’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. That’s 844-220-0965. We’ll keep rolling with Glenn, who’s also in Orlando. Glenn, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Good morning, Glenn.

Good morning.

Hi, how are you?

Good.

Great.

What’s up?

I’m getting ready to retire in about a year, and previously, I didn’t have this choice, but recently, we now have a choice between taking the annuity pension or taking a buyout of about somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000.

Okay.

And I was wondering about the — I’m leaning towards the pension because my wife is seven years younger than I am, but I was wanting a discussion. I’d like to hear a discussion about the pros and cons between taking the buyout or taking the pension.

Well, every case is unique, Glenn.

Right.

And we do this as a matter of when we do financial planning. You are certainly a candidate to have some financial planning done because you’re about to enter into that stage of your life where you’ve got to make some long-term financial decisions. Every pension is unique. Every situation is unique in terms of what your other assets are and what your desires are, and how strong that pension looks, because pensions are not guaranteed. They are guaranteed only by the strength of that particular pension, and we have known in times of past, in fact I was with a client the other day that used to get a pension from Eastern Airlines.

Oh boy.

And also I had another client in, strangely enough, that was — used to get a pension from United Airlines, and they filed bankruptcy.

Mhmm.

Companies, this happens. So, and you know, you’re looking at this pension for the rest of your life, 25 or 30 years, you may be looking at a pension. Now I’m not trying to down play the pension. But a very critical element is, is that pension going to be guaranteed. Now, we have behind that what’s called a pension benefit guarantee corporation, or known as PBGC.

Right.

And why don’t we tell him how that works.

Well, we also, if the company were to become bankrupt and not be able to meet the obligations, then the pension benefit guarantee steps in and makes payments. But there’s no guarantee, what’s the latest funding on that.

It’s underfunded.

Very underfunded. So you’re counting on something that <Inaudible> may not be available in the future. Now, to answer your question, Glenn, though what we would do is we would discount those cash flows to present value and we would compare. So at a reasonable discount rate. So we would assume, make some assumptions about the longevity, about how long you would live, and if you were looking at doing a joint annuity. The projected time frame for your wife, we would discount those to present value and we would look at it, we would talk about the pros and cons. So for example, the other issue we would want to talk about is are you a risk adverse person. If you are the type of person who would get your quarterly statement see, my gosh, my investments went down 10%, I’m going to run to the hills and put everything in a CD, well then, this annuity or pension might be just what the doctor ordered. But if you want the potential for growth, maybe you want the ability to — there’s excess money to leave to children if you have children. So it’s not an easy answer. There’s a lot of factors that we go in to, but the first step I always take is the discount that annuity to present value to see even if that annuity option is favorable. And then we start talking about everything else, risk tolerance, comfort level, your spouse’s comfort level, et cetera.

Glenn, I would — I suggest call Gary on Monday morning and we offer a no obligation visit. Come on in and we’ll talk about your situation, we can tell you what we do and how we do it, and we’ll — I know this, when the planning is done, the thing I hear most from clients is their <Background Noise> mind.

Relief

Yeah, really.

Yeah, yeah.

Absolute relief.

Absolute relief.

Absolute relief, so what we don’t want you to do —

We know Glenn is not the only person <Background Noise> situation

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

What you don’t want to do is go into retirement, and look back five years from now, said Gee, I wish I would’ve known this and gee, I wish that I’d done that. And that’s what we do for clients. We do it for a fee, we’re not going to try to sell you something. And the fee is very very reasonable, I believe, for what you get in return. So call Gary Monday morning at 407-869-9800 or you can go to our website, financialgroup.con. Click on his smiling face, and you can make a reservation right there, an appointment right there.

A reservation on a smiling face.

<Background Noise> there, Glenn, and then we hope you’re all set for your retirement. Thank you for the call.

Alright, thanks, if you want Glenn’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. We’ll take Sam in Orlando, you’ll be first up after the break. But real quick, before we get the three big things you need to know, upcoming workshops are coming.

January the 6th, Gary’s going to be doing one. <Inaudible> standing next to me.

He stands up all day long in front of his computer. And I’m sitting here in my <Inaudible> chair, about three feet off the ground, and he’s <Background Noise>

And he probably has significantly less back problems than all of us put together.

I love it.

Love it, love it.

So, January the 6th at our office in Eltemont Springs, Saturday morning, 9:00 to 11:00. Gary will be conducting his know your number. What do you need to know and have knowledge about your number to retire to have enough capital, have enough gas in the tank to get you through those retirement years. It’s absolutely free, go to our website, financialgroup.com. He’s not going to be trying to sell you an annuity or some investment product, but the reason we do this, folks, is to, number one, to avoid those disasters that we see sometimes walking in our office when they’ve made those bad decisions. And secondly to introduce you to our firm, what we do for a fee, and how we work with clients who are nearly 40 years and providing financial advice with 10, 11 certified financial planners at the Certified Financial Group. So give us a call or go to our website, that’s financialgroup.com. Financialgroup.com.

Alright, we are planning tomorrow.

Today.

With Certified Financial Group. Joe Bert, Gary Abley, 844-220-0965. Time to hear the three big things you need to know.

This is news 96.5. WDBO.

It is the final segment of On The Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5, WDBO, ask the experts weekend, Joe Bert, and Gary Abley. Here in the studio, taking your phone calls at 944-220-0965, 944-220-0965. Sammy, before we get back to you in the two text questions we have, we wanted to circle back to Jon’s question real quick.

Yeah, we want to go over Jon’s question. So Joe just mentioned, I think I misunderstood the timing of the transfer. So let’s just clarify that for everybody listening. If you receive something at or after death, then you do get the step up in basis, but I think in this particular situation, Jon had a quick claim of property to him from his father, while his father was still alive, and that is a carry over basis. So in essence, Jon will have the same cost factor, the same what we like to call basis in the home as his father did. So potentially, there could be a gain there. So wanted to make sure we got that out there.

Yup.

Alright. Sammy in Orlando, Sammy, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Sammy.

Good morning sir.

Good morning.

Good morning, how can we help you.

Yeah, I <Inaudible> 401(k) into IRA because I need to borrow some money. So I borrowed the money and I paid back in less than one month. So I’m going to be 55 soon. I wonder if I draw out my 401(k) from <Inaudible> tax free <Inaudible> 401(k).

I didn’t quite understand, Sammy. Are you — you’re asking is the 401(k) transfer — the 401(k) transfer into an IRA from custodian to custodian —

Yeah

— Is tax free, but if you take money out of the IRA, and get it back, I guess, is what you’re saying, is that permissible, and that would be. If you’re going from an IRA and you get the money back within that 30 days.

<Inaudible> 60 days <Inaudible>

Yeah, but he did it within 30.

<Inaudible>

Yes, no taxable to you.

Right.

So let me be sure we understand. You had money in a 401(k). You put it into an IRA. You took the money out, and now you’re putting it back within 30 days, there are no tax consequences.

Yes, but it’s <Inaudible> sounded like <Inaudible> 401(k), you would <Inaudible> penalty.

Okay, so I think I know what you’re asking. So if you moved money from a 401(k) to an IRA, you have to wait until your 59 and a half to take money out without a 10% penalty. But from a 401(k), in some cases, you’re able to take that early, take money out earlier than age 59 and a half, at age 55 without a penalty. So sometimes, it is not advantageous to transfer from a 401(k) into an IRA if you’re going to need that money.

And if you’re still working, you could borrow from the plan in many cases, <Background Noise> yourself back.

That’s right. Yup.

So you may want to look at that, Sammy.

So don’t transfer into an IRA if you think you’re going to need the money prior to age 59 and a half.

Thank you so much.

Alright. Thanks for the call.

Thank you for the call.

Alright Sammy, alright, let’s get to our text question here. This is an easy one. Can your deposits be withdrawn from a Roth savings account without penalty.

Well as long as you’ve had that account open for at least five years and you’re 59 and a half, you’ll be able to take that money out without the 10% penalty.

But the deposits, are always — you can always pull those out <Background Noise>

You can always pull your principal out, <Background Noise>

<Background Noise> you put in, but the earnings <Background Noise>

The earnings.

The earnings, yes. So you’ve got <Background Noise>

Yeah, so there’s two elements to it.

Yup.

What you put in, and what it’s earned. You can always pull out what you put in.

Right.

Without a penalty, but the earnings are <Background Noise>

Subject to penalty, if you haven’t had that account open at least five years.

Got it. Okay. In the Roth savings account, as long as you only take out what you put in.

You got it.

Correct.

Yup, yup.

Alright, simple enough Thank you so much, guys.

Alright.

Alright, that’s going to do it for this week’s edition of On The Money with the Certified Financial Group. We’ll be back next year, next week. <Background Noise>

Hopefully <Inaudible>

Not in January yet, it’s January in my head.

Not yet.

But December 2nd, I’m getting thrown off here. We’ll be back next week. Until then, we’ll see you guys over at financialgroup.com. Alright Gary, Joe, have been planning tomorrow.

Well good Saturday morning to you, everybody. I am Kyle Cassandra and this is On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO. It’s ask the experts weekend. Joe Bert and Nancy Hecht are here this morning, good morning guys.

Good morning.

Good morning.

How are you today?

Great, good.

We’re doing great.

It’s getting warm where the northeast is in the 10s and 20s, Nancy, I know <Inaudible>.

<Inaudible> I’ve lived in Florida.

<Inaudible> this cold weather.

I do not miss it at all.

We saw the weather report right before we went off and was like ah man, I don’t <Inaudible>.

<Inaudible>.

Joe, what are we doing here at 9:00 on a Saturday on WDBO?

Nancy and I are here to take your questions regarding anything that might be on your mind regarding your personal finances. We go through life trying some of this, trying some of that, and wake up when we’re 55 years old. Look across the breakfast table to Loretta and say Loretta, what are we going to do? The paychecks are going to stop here pretty soon and now we have this 401k, got this IRA, got this stuff we’ve accumulated. How do we turn all of that stuff into income so we can maintain that lifestyle that we’ve come to know and enjoy.

<Inaudible> buy lottery tickets.

That may be our only solution. But we are here to answer those questions that might be on your mind regarding your personal finances. Because as I said, we go through life with a collection of financial accidents and we are your financial body shops, and we’re here to take your questions that you might have about your IRA, about a 401k. A lot of reverse mortgage, about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, long-term healthcare, annuities, life insurance, all that and more. We are here to take your questions and we are also I think ready on Facebook live. We are live on Facebook live, so if you want to go to your Facebook page and go to Certified Financial Group — how do we do that, Donny? We go to Certified Financial Group.

So you can see behind-the-scenes, you can catch up with Nancy and me here this morning taking your calls. So we are here and the good news is the lines are relatively wide open. We already have a caller in line, Kyle, so why don’t we jump right to it?

Well we haven’t screened him yet, so hang on.

<Inaudible> in light of that, in light of that.

Well, we’ve got the phone number. 844-220-0965. So you get the Facebook, you get the camera in there, <Inaudible>. 844-220-0965. That’s 844-220-0965. The text machine is up and running as well, 21232. 21232, and if you want to watch us on Facebook, you can put Certified Financial Group in the search bar too. That’ll bring up that page <Inaudible> and then will bring you to the Certified Financial Group page and you’ll see the video right there at the top.

<Inaudible>.

Last week, we had a caller that called about his 14 year old daughter that was making money doing commercials, and had asked about what type of retirement plan could be had for her. And there is such a thing as a custodial IRA, so wanted to let that gentleman know that that could be established for his daughter.

There you go <Inaudible>.

Just taking a left over question from last week.

That’s great, thank you. Alright, so we are here, Kyle? We got a caller?

Well, we do. We have Al, Al is ready to go. Al is up and on the line right now. You’re up first on the Certified Financial Group right here on WDBO.

Hi, Al.

Hey, good morning.

<Inaudible> IRA <Inaudible> I’m 31 right now and I already took required minimum distribution. If you get a little bit short on cash where you need a new <Inaudible> before they send you the statement, <Inaudible> can you do a partial withdrawal of funds?

Al, you can take whatever you want out of that when you want it. The only thing the government is concerned is that you take the required minimum distribution.

Right.

So that money is always yours. When you want it, you’ve got it, it’s yours, take it.

So if you pull out more and you pay taxes on it, the federal government is going to be very happy with you.

But can you get <Inaudible> suppose that <Inaudible> withdraw $7,000, you know. You can say well for now give me $2,000 and then later on pay the 5,000, whatever?

Yes, as long as but December 31st of the year you have at least the minimum that’s required withdrawn, you’re fine. It doesn’t matter how you take it. Often, <Inaudible> clients that are just starting to take the required minimum distributions, they ask how can they get it. And you can really get it in any manner that is most appropriate for you. Some people take it out monthly, some take it quarterly. We have a lot of clients that take it out in a lump sum. But Al, as long as you take the minimum, it doesn’t matter how you take it.

So it has be done before December 31st?

That’s correct.

Correct, correct.

Don’t they send me the letter? <Inaudible> I’m a dinosaur, okay?

Yes.

So <Inaudible> send me a letter saying how much you have to take out.

Right.

Yeah.

They’ll send you a letter and that’s the amount you have to take out by the end of the year. So if you want to take out a little now and take out some later, as long as you take out that amount by December 31st as Nancy said, you’re in good shape.

Alright, thank you very much.

Alright Al, thanks for the call.

Alright. If you want Al’s line, that’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Today’s topic I have here on the messenger: Do this now, three moves to make before the end of the year.

Exactly, exactly. I’m sure there’s more than three but I think that these are the most important. A lot of people now are getting their property tax bills. So we’ve talked in the past about doing something we call bunching deductions. So let’s say that you know next year you’re up for a raise. So your income might be a little bit higher. You do have the option to wait until after January 1st to pay this year’s property tax bill. And then pay next year’s property tax bill, so you have double the property tax deduction assuming you can itemize in 2018. So looking at things like that or charitable contributions that you normally make, and getting additional deductions in the years that you think your income might be a little bit higher to help reduce the taxability of it a little bit.

So let me stop you here. So you have the option — you’ve got the tax bill now.

Right.

So if you paid your tax bill last January, you can also do that this year and double off this year.

Right, exactly.

Or as you said, if you get <Inaudible> more income next year, you can do the same thing, pay it in January then pay it the end of the fall.

Yes, last year I did that. I paid two property tax bills in one year, so yeah. You can do that, many people do that as a charitable contribution <Inaudible> you know how much you normally make to organizations and if there’s an unexpected cash influx in a particular year, then you can just do two years worth of deductions in one year. Another thing that you can do, a lot of people are looking at their statements and they’re seeing that there’s some nice gains in some of their investments. And if you happen to be in a 10% or 15% tax bracket, you can take your gains and pay 0% on those capital gains.

Not bad.

The maximum tax on capital gains is 20%. And if you’re re-balancing your portfolio, you can look at matching up some gains against maybe some items that have taken a little bit of a loss. And then those gains will also become tax-free if you’re above the 15% tax bracket. And the last thing — and this is really appropriate now, is disaster losses. For people who had suffered some losses from the hurricane, generally you’re allowed to take 100% of your losses and then you have a 10% threshold. Your losses have to be more than 10% of your adjusted gross income to be able to take a loss deduction. But in September, Congress approved legislation to waive that. So active the first $500, the 10% threshold does not matter. So <Inaudible> okay so if you suffered say $5,000 worth of losses, you can write off $4,500 worth of the loss and it does not matter if that $4,500 is 10% of your adjusted gross income or not. You can still use it as a straight —

Like a $500 deductible.

Okay.

Right. Itemized deduction.

Right, right.

Whereas in the past, if that $4,500 was not more than 10% of your adjusted gross income, you could not take any <Inaudible> off.

So one more things, that’s our charitably inclined folks, that <Inaudible> may want to consider is doing a direct transfer of your RMD up to $100,000 directly to the charity before the end of the year. And that’s another way to <Inaudible>

But you have to do that before December 31st.

Right, right. And what you would need is the name, the address, and the tax ID number of the charity. So it has to be a direct transfer. It can’t flow through you, it’s got to go directly from your custodian to the charity. We do for a lot of our clients, but you’ve got to be over 70 and a half years old.

There you go.

Your on tax <Inaudible> right here.

<Inaudible>. Well now is the time. Now is when we’re thinking of okay, November <Inaudible>

The next six weeks are going to go really fast.

Well Thanksgiving and then every weekend you’re going to be shopping and then the Christmas party starts and then boom, already it’s January.

It’s <Inaudible> already. <Inaudible>.

November and December always go by super fast. Well 844-220-0965 is the number to jump in on the conversation today if you have a question about anything we just talked about. Got something on your mind? It’s already November. It’s November 11th, it’s Veteran’s Day already, can you believe that?

Yeah, just a shout out to all of our veterans for their years of service. <Inaudible> do that, I just jump right in there.

No, you can do that today. Go right ahead, that’s okay. It’s you’re show, I’m all good with that. It is Veteran’s Day, but I would also say if you’re a veteran, any VA benefits questions you may have that you can get answered for you as well, 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Or you can text at 21232 if you — now you can shout to veterans.

There you go. <Inaudible> Shout out to all of our veterans for their service. Just a reminder, for those folks that are committed to going to Gary Abely’s mutual fund seminar, that’s today. It is sold out, booked up, filled up, standing room only, and that is done. So if you signed up for it, I’m sure he’d appreciate you showing up and taking the seat you signed up for. And the next one coming up —

Got two in a row, that he has sold out there.

Yeah, well he does a Medicare thing that everybody is interested in. The next one coming up is everything you want <Inaudible> today. When can you retire, you know your number. This is always a popular one as well.

Yes.

People retire and they have no idea if the money will last throughout their lifetime. So Gary will be doing that —

Knowing your number is key because what’s the finish line, what’s the goal, what am I <Inaudible> to. You can’t just pick a number out of your head. It’s good to sit there and say you know what, okay, I want to do this and I want to do this and I want to do this. Okay, what’s that number?

Well it encompasses a lot. I met with a couple yesterday and was doing a plan presentation. And they had not realized until they fill out what we call a blue form, <Inaudible> extent of expenses. And how much money they’re actually spending every single year.

Yeah.

Instead well — in retirement, <Inaudible> going to be less. And we have found often, that no that is not the case. Health insurance and healthcare costs tend to increase and they end up spending more money. Travel, vacation, on the kids <Inaudible>

That house paid off, but your healthcare bill looks like a mortgage payment.

Yeah.

<Inaudible> real disasters out there. We’ve had some clients walk in that are shopping the ACA and man alive <?>, it’s scary what’s out there unfortunately.

I can tell you from personal experience going through it right now, we have a choice between $2,700 a month in premiums or $4,000 a month in premiums depending on what services we’re <Inaudible>.

Wow.

That’s a <Inaudible>.

I heard somebody that other day <Inaudible> only had something like a $30,000 deductible, like that’s not health insurance. That’s <Inaudible>.

It’s called catastrophic.

Yeah, that’s exactly what that was. But you know, that’s something to think about and that’s something you guys help with over here at the Certified Financial Group. You sit there, sit down, no matter what age you are. 50, 45, 40, 35, anybody in the 20s, <Inaudible> plenty of time now, yeah.

Yeah, the beginning of this year was really nice. I saw so many people in their 20s and their 30s, and it really made me happy that they were embracing some planning.

I think what’s going on is they’re seeing perhaps their parents struggling.

Right.

And the wake up call is coming. But their parents didn’t see their parents struggle, and that’s what’s going on.

Yeah.

It’s that World War II generation that had the house paid for, didn’t have a lot of debt, didn’t have the big wedding, didn’t have the college expenses and all of that stuff <Inaudible> with modest means, they got through it. So that generation didn’t see their parents. But now the younger generation are seeing their parents struggle because their parents didn’t plan.

Yeah, and I know a lot of people who think aw my parents struggled. I’m like, no they didn’t. They got there and they’re <Inaudible> all of the assets they have, look at how much they saved. But it was the <Inaudible> no no no, we can’t buy that. They could be perfectly fine and well off and they’ll still be buying dollar toilet paper at the dollar store, which you got — parents, they’re just spending ridiculous amounts of money on everything.

<Inaudible> this is a discussion we had with our daughter a couple of weeks ago. Because she entered college in 2009. So right after everything imploded in 2008, so there was a seismic shift in her world and what we were able to do for her. And I had to consistently say no to her.

I think that has a lot to do with it. You think you have a lot of the 20-somethings now that were teenagers when the market crashed.

Right, right.

So all of the layoffs, all of their parents get laid off at 56 and go what am I going to do now, that now as they’re getting in, they’ve got their money. Oh now I’ve got — they’re sitting and looking at a 401k and a company matching. <Inaudible> make sure I don’t screw this up.

Yeah, yeah. But the nice thing is she’s telling all of her co-workers you have to be doing this, you should be putting more into your 401k.

I thought I was with everybody else, filling out my 401k and planning for retirement and apparently a lot of my friends aren’t. And they look to me for advice. I go woah woah woah, I’m not the planner. I just do it.

<Inaudible> worst thing is when first of all, the people don’t take advantage of the free money. Because many companies have a match. And people aren’t taking advantage of that and many people think they’re maxing out when they’re just <Inaudible>.

Just contributing to the match, yeah.

I made that mistake, <Inaudible> yes, I did make that mistake until I started doing this show on a regular basis.

There you go, so <Inaudible> your age, you can put in 18,000.

Well and what you have to realize is the money is going out of your pocket one way or another. Either it’s going into another bucket that has your name on it which is 401k, or it’s going to another bucket that has the name of IRS on it for <Inaudible>.

Alright, well 844-220-0965. We’re up against the three big things you need to know. 844-220-0965 is the number to joint us in if you’re listening and you don’t have anything planned. And you just don’t know where to get started or what to do, that’s what we do here on the radio today free of charge. 844-220-0965. We do have a text question in at 21232, we will answer that right after we get the three big things you need to know. We are planning tomorrow —

Today.

With Joe Bert and Nancy Hecht from the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO.

Hey, welcome back. This is On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO. It’s ask the experts weekend, Joe Bert and Nancy Hecht are live here in the studio, taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. We also have a text machine up and running as well, 21232. Lots to get to here in this short segment because we are three minutes away from the latest news, weather, and traffic, so let’s get back to our phone call. Talk to Jeff in Orlando. Jeff, you’re on with Joe and Nancy here on WDBO. Good morning.

Good morning.

Hi, Jeff.

Good morning, Jeff.

Hi everybody.

What’s your question?

So I found out that I’m able to do durable medical equipment and home modifications through insurance due to one of my certifications, and I currently work in the public school system. My question is I had my FRS <sp?> retirement which is the Florida retirement. So I have that in place, but I also have a 403b with about 40,000 in it right now. So assume these home modifications and equipment become very expensive. So my question is should I cash out my 403b because this is all pre-authorized, and once I get an authorization I am able to supply the equipment and get reimbursement from insurance. Would that be something worth cashing the 403b out?

Well, first of all how old are you, Jeff?

35.

35, okay. So anything that you pull out of the 403b, you’re going to pay ordinary income tax on plus a 10% penalty for early withdrawal. Is that the only source of cash that you might have?

At this point, yes because we also have two rental properties and we just got some hurricane damage, so that <Inaudible>.

Okay, alright. Well I mean if that’s the only place that you have for cash. I mean we’re not fans of using your retirement account as a piggy bank and especially if you might be wiping that whole thing out. You just have to be prepared to pay those taxes.

And so the other part that gets really fun is my student loans are under the income-based repayment. Will that jump those up?

Yes, it will. Because <Inaudible> taxable income. One thing you might look at is if it’s inevitable that you’re going to definitely use this 403b, take part this year and part next year, or close to the end of the year. And if you take part of it now and then the rest that you’re going to need for the business in January, then it’s going to be spread over two different tax years.

I didn’t think about that, that’s a good idea.

I don’t know if that will help or not, but that’s one way to spread it out and maybe preserve what’s going on with your student loans.

Alright, well I appreciate.

Okay.

Yeah, <Inaudible>. Alright Jeff, thanks so much for the phone call. If you want Jeff’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. We are up against the latest news, weather, and traffic here so Caroline, hang on the line. I also see we have a couple of text questions in at 21232, if you do have a text question please keep it to about 160 characters, that’s all we can see on our screen. I know sometimes our questions get cut off if it’s a long text. That’s what the phone lines are for. So give us a call, we can have some bounce back. 844-220-0965. We’re planning tomorrow —

Today.

With Joe Bert and Nancy Hechts from the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO.

Alright, welcome back. This On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO. We have Joe Bert, Nancy Hecht, playing the <Inaudible> Saturday morning at 9:35. We’re taking your phone calls as well. 844-220-0965. Why don’t we take in your <Inaudible> Joe?

We’re here to answer any questions that might be on your mind regarding your personal finances. As we say, we go through life trying some of this, trying some of that, wake up when we’re 55 years old and find out we had a collection of financial accidents. So we are your financial planning body shop. We will repair those dents and damages. Put a little bondo on there, paint you up, and get you out the door.

A little bondo.

Bondo. So all you have to do is pick up the phone and dial these magic numbers.

844-220-0965. Bondo on the 401k plan.

That’s it.

844-220-0965.

Do you know what bondo is?

I was just saying to myself that my people and younger than me don’t know what <Inaudible>.

You’ve never been in a body shop?

Well we said that — what was it, last week when we said do they still make bondo? What is bondo? Do you just put it on his bumper and put it back together, yeah.

That’s the stuff they used to repair dents and damage in your car.

That was the <Inaudible> paste or <Inaudible> on your car. <Inaudible> Yeah, that was a good one.

Bondo.

That was a good put in on and smooth it out, <Inaudible> it on and you never <Inaudible>.

<Inaudible> old sign. You ever see like those old signs, those old brands? I <Inaudible> those signs, <Inaudible>. Alright, well you guys text machine is up and running. We got our phone calls rolling, so let’s get back to them. Let’s go to Caroline in Merrot Island, has been hanging on for a little while.

Caroline.

Caroline, you’re on WDBO.

Hey, good morning.

Good morning how could we help you?

Good morning.

How can we help you?

Well my question, you guys were talking about the deductions, doing the <Inaudible> whole property taxes or charitable deduction in retirement. So where do you get the best bang for your buck?

Well, what you have to do is look at your own tax situation and determine whether or not you’re going to be able to use the deduction. A lot of people do that, they double up on the deduction like Nancy said for charitable or property taxes. They get double deductions in one year, so you can get over that threshold of the standard deduction. So depending on your own personal situation, how much you’re paying in property taxes and what you give to charity and so forth, that’s what you have to look at.

One thing you could do <Inaudible> oh I’m sorry, go on.

No I mean, I’m just saying would it be better to make a charity deduction or —

No, that’s <Inaudible> the same.

Yeah, if you can <Inaudible> if you can itemize, you can itemize. So it’s whatever is going to work easiest for you, whatever is going to give you the warm fuzzies. If it’s doing more charitable versus paying a double property tax. And if you want to see what’s going to be most effective, you can go on IRS.gov and download 1040s, just do a little thumbnail and see. If I do an extra $1,000 it’ll push me into this level, and I can then itemize and do more.

However, one word of caution. There is a phase-out of charitable contributions over a certain income level. So dollar for dollar, your property taxes will get you there without. And unless your income is high, then you don’t have to worry about the charitable deduction phase-out. But some folks because of their income, don’t get dollar for dollar on the charitable contributions.

Okay, and what about doing a retirement investment? Because I’m a real estate agent so I have to do everything <Inaudible>.

Well I mean every penny that you can do pre-tax or through a SEP or a SIMPLE or any type of deductible thing is going to be the best and first and foremost in my mind, you know?

You’re self-employed?

Yes, I am.

You ought to consider setting up what we call a uni-k, a one-person 401k plan. And you can combine that with regular contributions, put over $50,000 into that on a pre-tax basis. You’ve got to be talking to a financial planner. I know, he’s on my back.

Well, get him off your back and get him in front of you and get it going, because the year is closing. In fact, you have to have that 401k set up by the end of the year. However, you don’t have to fund it until you file your taxes. So you may not have the cash flow now but you have to have it set up. Alright?

If he’s listening, I’m sure I’m going to get a call. Thank you.

<Inaudible> for the call. Alright, if you want Caroline’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Let’s go to Nancy in Orlando. Nancy, you’re up next here with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hi, I have a health insurance question. I have Medicare parts A and B <sp?> for my health insurance and I’m finding there are a lot of things that Medicare doesn’t cover. And my premium for the part B which is the doctors office visits is going up to $134 a month in January. And I was told by my providers that self-pay patients get 75% discount off of the regular charge that they would normally charge the insurance.

Wow.

So I’m wondering if it would benefit me to just drop my part B insurance and use the numbers saved on the premium to — no?

No, no, no, no, no. Because you don’t know that everybody is going to do that.

Oh.

Yeah. You’re playing with fire there because you’re assuming that the doctor you’re going to go to will do that for you, but you want to have that coverage. And I understand what that opportunity is for you, but I wouldn’t do that.

And you might want to ask while keeping it, if you’re at a doctors office. If I self-pay versus you running through my insurance, will I get this discount? So by maintaining and asking the question, you have the choice.

I did ask that, and they said if you have the insurance, they have to run it through <Inaudible>.

You don’t want to drop your part B, what you want to look at is a Medicare supplement, and that’s what they’re out there for.

I can’t get a supplement because I’m under 65 and it’s very, very expensive, it’s like $500 for <Inaudible>.

Ah, okay.

Because I’m on disability.

Ah, okay.

Alright, yeah don’t drop it. Hang onto it. Yeah, sorry about that.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thanks for the call.

Thank you, Nancy, for the phone call. If you would like Nancy’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. Let’s go to William in Daytona. William, you’re up next with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Good morning, William.

Hi, William.

Morning.

What can we do for you?

<Inaudible>.

I’m $18,000 in credit card debt and I’m currently a student. Am I savvy or am I slick using my cost of living loan for school to pay down my credit card debt, get a lower interest rate?

You’re using your student loans to pay down your credit card debt, is that what you’re doing?

Well yeah, <Inaudible> student loans for the amount of school but I can take out a cost of living loan to pay for supplements throughout the year, but I’m paying 3% through the get government and <Inaudible> with the credit card.

Oh yeah, yeah you could do that. And the key is to get rid of the credit cards because they’re in your pocket and you’ll use them again and find yourself in the same position. So anytime you can borrow and lower interest rate and pay off a higher interest rate, you’re money ahead.

Okay, so I’m not crazy, thank you.

No, it’s a smart idea as long as you keep your spending in check. And you do not put more going forward on the credit card than you can afford to pay off when you get the bill.

Correct. Thank you.

Alright, thank you.

Alright, just like that, thanks so much William for the phone call. If you want William’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. Text machine 21232. Kat in Kissimmee is up next. Kat, you’re on with Joe Bert and Nancy Hecht, certified financial planning professionals from the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Good morning, Kat.

Good morning. Thank you for taking my call.

Sure.

I’m about to retire and I have a pension actually an investment that I can take the whole thing. And then I have a rollover from another job, and then I have tax-deferred savings account from my job.

Okay.

Okay.

So what I’m wondering is when I retire, I’m thinking I should put them all into one piggy bank.

You can do that. I mean — I would want to know and I’m sure it’s Joe’s first thought too, have you sat down with anyone like us to look at where you’re at now and how you’re living your life and cost of living. Bring out all this stuff under one bucket is nice, one statement, one area to pull withdrawals from. There’s a lot of ease of recordkeeping in management. But then how to have those dollars invested and allocated to best suit your needs is an important part of the picture also.

You mentioned you can cash in your pension and get a lump sum, I think that’s what your first comment was there, Kat?

To roll over into another account.

Right, so she would roll over that, the old 401k, and then the current one.

Yeah, you want to have that looked at because one of the things that we like when you’re going into retirement is guaranteed income and a pension will provide that. In some cases, it makes sense to grab the pension and in some cases, it makes sense to cash it in and roll it into an IRA and draw from your IRA as you need it. Are you married, Kat?

Yes.

You’re married.

And it’s Pat.

Pat, I’m sorry. <Inaudible>

Oh yeah, <Inaudible>. Kyle said Kat.

Okay, so we got you.

Yeah.

Pat, you should really have a plan done for you. You’re entering a phase of life when mistakes can be critical and you’re about to make some decisions with a lot of money that you’re going to look at for the rest of your life as to how do I do what I want to do. And the only way to really get that answer is to sit down with someone that would do this for you for a fee. Won’t do it for free, because if they’re doing it for free, chances are they want to sell you something. So you want somebody that will spend time with you, sit across the table with you and develop something that will work for you and is customer tailored for you that’ll give you the guidance. And that’s what we do with Certified Financial Group, been doing it now for 40 <?> years and we’d be glad to take you on as a client. But you’re in that critical point in time, Pat, where you need to have somebody really crunch some numbers for you. And then the best thing you get out of this is peace of mind. Because for the first time, you’ll know exactly what you’ll need to do and why you’re doing, then you can sail off into the sunset and enjoy your retirement.

So Pat, feel free to <Inaudible>

Yeah, I have a town house also that is about to pay off. And I’m thinking about selling that to put in the pot as well.

Okay.

Sure, sure. Well, it may not makes sense to do that. Depending on what the return is on that town house, where it’s located, then that might be a good investment that you want to hang onto as it gives you a little diversification of real estate.

If there’s a potential gain or loss in that.

Right, right.

Pat, feel free to give us a call. Our phone is 407-869 —

Well you know I can’t write that down while I’m driving.

Oh, okay. Alright, <Inaudible>. So when you get home, look up financialgroup.com and then you can get the <Inaudible> phone number and you can click on a tab to request a complimentary consultant.

And you have News965.com or we have all of our listings as well, that’s another way. I’m just trying to thinking what’s an easy way to remember. But CertifiedFinancialGroup.com, the easiest way. Alright, Pat, thanks so much. Sorry I called you Kat there. I did the K instead of the P when they put your name in on the computer screen. Let’s go to I believe — John has been hanging on long. It’s John in Orlando, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hi, John.

Good morning. I have five agency <?> funds and just recently none of them are paying any principal. They’re paying interest, but not principal.

Okay.

<Inaudible> I don’t know why.

Well were they designed to be self liquidating?

Well, yeah. When they mature, they just disappear, yes.

Okay.

Well wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. Let’s back up. First of all, who’s the issuer?

You mean like a — they’re agency funds.

From?

Fannie Mae, Ginnie Mae, federal home loan.

Okay, okay. So you were getting a check for a period of time and now the checks have stopped?

Well, probably because the interest rates are very low and there is no urgency to pay them off.

Well that’s it, yeah. <Inaudible> 3%.

Yes, that’s why. That’s a great mortgage and people aren’t rushing to pay those off anymore. Back in the day when interest rates were higher and you could refinance at a lower interest rate, people were rushing to pay off their bonds and you’ve got principal and interest coming back on those loans.

Yeah, so you’re not seeing a lot of refinancing right now, you’re not seeing a lot of pre-payments.

Right.

Okay, yeah you answered my questions. That’s great. But can this go on like forever or <Inaudible>.

Well at least — forever or to the maturity of the bonds.

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah — well no, well let’s see. Most of the bonds — I bought them with the average life span, anywhere from two and a half to three years.

Oh, okay.

And it’s been — most of them were bought in 2012.

Okay. It’s a little bit hard, John, without seeing the actual bonds or being able to look up the bonds to see what’s going on with them. We do have the ability to search.

But the basic problem is people aren’t refinancing, that’s why you’re not getting the principal payment.

Huh, right. And, I mean it could go on for a long time since they’re not refinancing?

Yes it can, at 3%. But there’s <Inaudible>

But there’s a secondary market. You could sell them in a secondary market and get something for them. Whatever the market will pay for them. It’s not like it’s illiquid.

But it guarantees 3%, is not so bad in today’s world when you compare it to checking and savings, money market <Inaudible> pay you.

Instead of 0.03%, you’re getting 3%.

Yes, exactly.

<Inaudible> looking for more income, but unfortunately John you got to remember when you’re getting that check with the principal coming back with the interest, ultimately that’s going to disappear — I mean it stops.

And the interest payments will decrease because it’s being paid on a small amount.

<Inaudible>. Well thanks for the call, John.

Yeah John, we appreciate it. We are up against the break here, but if you want John’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. We are planning tomorrow —

Today.

With Joe Bert and Nancy Hechts certified planning professionals and Certified Financial Group. Again, 844-220-0965. Time to get the three big things you need to know.

Welcome back, it’s the final segment of On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO. It’s your last chance to get your question answered and we have some people on the phone lines and a text question to get to. So let’s get right to it, let’s talk to Mike in St. Cloud. Mike, you’re on WDBO. Good morning.

Good morning Mike.

Hi Mike.

Yeah, good morning.

How can we help you?

Good morning guys, thank you so, I love you so.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I just wanted to get to the point there. I want to start a college fund for my grandson, but I want to be able to maybe between just me and him. Because I don’t like my kids, I don’t trust my kids, they’re just waiting for me to die, you know, that kind of thing. I just want to do something that I can do for him and leave it for him.

If you do a 529 college savings plan, you are the owner. The grandchild is the beneficiary, and you can name — are you married?

I am married, yes.

Okay, then you can name your spouse as the successor owner.

Okay.

<Inaudible> anything that completely within you, and one nice thing about you doing it for your grandchild is if there’s grants or scholarships or loans that can be had, because you own it and you’re not the parent. Whatever you’re doing for them does not have to be claimed on a financial statement. So I think it’s wonderful. Anything you can do for your grandkids I think is a phenomenal gift.

In addition to that, you may want to consider the Florida Prepaid plan because that would be in his name.

Okay.

Have you looked at that at all? Do you know how that works?

Yes, I do. I was going to ask you, if you don’t mind, so I have to have his Social Security number? Because I don’t think he has one, yet.

You do.

Yeah, he does. He has one. Believe me, they don’t leave the hospital today without a Social Security number.

Oh, is that right? Okay, okay. And what happens if he doesn’t go to college? Can my — can we retain that or is that just <Inaudible>

Well each plan is different. The 529, you can pass onto anybody else in the family.

Right, right. Or if you end up not having a grandchild that you would like to name as a beneficiary and you end up using the money yourself, even though it’s grown tax-deferred, you’ll just pay ordinary income tax on whatever the growth is.

On the Florida Prepaid plan, you can cash it out but you pay taxes and any gain that might be there.

Thank you for all you do, I really appreciate it.

I appreciate your call.

Thank you, Mike.

Great thanks Mike, let’s go to Rich in Flagler Beach. Rich, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hi Rich.

Good morning. Quick question on the hurricane, <Inaudible> storm deductible. Is that just for primary residence or can it be for your second home as well?

There is no stipulation. It just says storm damage related to the hurricanes, to Harvey, Irma, or Maria. So it does not specify whether it is primary or a secondary residence.

Okay.

Alright.

Might want to check just to make sure, but again <Inaudible> in that.

Double-check that. Alright, let’s get to our text question. This text has been in here for awhile. I must take out yearly withdrawals from federal government TSP as well as an RMD. Can I put this withdrawal into a traditional IRA or give it to charity to avoid taxes?

Well you can’t do the traditional as you’re working.

No, no, you cannot. I mean if the person has a rollover or a traditional already and they want to transfer money from the TSP and into the IRA account, and then have it go from the IRA to charity, that path can be taken. But otherwise, no.

Okay. Well that’s going to wrap up our questions. We’ve got about 30 seconds left, so let’s give out the workshop schedule one more time.

Gary Abely has the next one on January the 6th, know your number. You can get more information about that at our website. That’s Financialgroup.com, financialgroup.com, click on workshops. That’s Saturday morning 9:00 to 11:00, good information, and we hope to see you there. And once again, a salute to all of our veterans.

Absolutely.

Yes.

Happy Veteran’s Day everybody. Boy, today went by fast. A lot of great questions <Inaudible>, always with the A team with Joe Bert, Nancy Hechts here on On the Money. That’s going to do it for this week’s addition. You will be back next Saturday, 9:00am right here on News 965 WDBO.

This is News 965 WDBO where Orlando turns first for breaking news, weather and traffic 24 hours a day.

Hello everybody, welcome to another edition of On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO. It’s ask the experts weekend. We’ve got Joe Bert and Aaron Bert from the Certified Financial Group in today.
Good morning, gentleman.

Morning.

How are you guys, today?

We’re doing great, how are you?

Super, super.

Joe, good to have you back from Lively <?>.

<Inaudible>, good to be back, less the snow.

The snow, where’d you go?

I was in North Carolina.

Beautiful, North Carolina.

Leaves are changing, and Sunday we flew out, snow flurries, baby. Time to get out of dodge.

But came back here, to what 86 degrees on a Tuesday?

Yeah <Inaudible>.

Joe, what can we call you about today?

Well, Aaron and I are here this morning to answer any questions that you might have regarding your personal finances. As we say, we go through life trying some of this, trying some of that, and wake up when we’re 55 years old, look across the kitchen table at Loretta, and say Loretta honey our paychecks are going to stop sometime, and how are we going to continue to live this wonderful lifestyle that we’ve been enjoying over all of these years? And that’s what’s financial planning is all about. What do we need to do now so you don’t look back five or ten years from now and say gee, I wish I would have known, or gee I’m sorry I did. And that’s what Aaron and I and the other certified financial planner professionals at CFG do, day in and day out for a fee. That on Saturday morning, we are absolutely free. So if you have any questions regarding your personal finances that revolve around questions on stocks and bonds and mutual funds and real estate and long-term healthcare, IRAs, and annuities, and reverse mortgages. And all of that stuff that we’d ever learn about in school and we <Inaudible> into and tried it and some of it works and some of it doesn’t, we’re here to fix all that up. We are your financial body shop. So you like that? A financial body shop?

Yeah, I don’t know about that <Inaudible>.

Stay tuned. So we’re the financial body shop, and we’re here to knock out those dents and to put the bond-o in where <Inaudible> bond-o and get you all set up. Do they still use bond-o? <Inaudible>

I was going to say, what’s bond-o?

You don’t know what bond-o is?

Well I’ve heard of bond-o, but yeah know.

The super-duper <Inaudible> back in the day.

Bond-o. No, I’ve never used bond-o.

No, <Inaudible> in the body shop. Anyway, we’re here to use the bond-o or whatever it takes to fix up your financial situation. So the good news for you if you have any questions, just pick up the phone and dial these magic numbers. You don’t even need to use your real name, you could <Inaudible> or Daphne or Jack or Loretta or whatever it might be.

And some people who just like to use those names that you give out. <Inaudible> any Daphnes and Sophias and Lorettas have called there?

That’s correct, that’s correct.

Well the magic numbers are 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. We also have the text machine up and running as well, 21232. That’s 21232. Alright, let’s start today’s conversation with today’s topic, four ways retirement savers can help reduce their RMDs.

Yeah, actually this is one of those things that — it’s an interesting problem to have because we are encouraging or always encouraging people to save for retirement. One of the best ways to save for retirement is to make contributions into your IRAs or your retirement plans at work on a tax-deferred basis so that you realize the tax savings today. The issue with doing that — one of the issues with doing that is when you actually hit 70 and a half, you have to start taking money out of those accounts and you can’t control how much money you take out of those accounts. It is a determined amount at the minimum, it’s called your required minimum distribution, that you have to start taking out when you turn — get to be 70 and a half. And if you did a good job of saving and if you have Social Security and maybe you have a pension, now you have to pull out these required minimum distributions. Some people don’t realize the tax issues that come about with having those required minimum distributions, so this is all about how to reduce the taxation on your required minimum distribution. There’s a couple of ways that you can do that. Once you reach 70 and a half though, you’re in the point where there’s not a lot you can do. Basically, the only thing you can do is give some of that money away, and the government now has what’s called a qualified charitable distribution. It’s a QCD. You can give up to $100,000 from your IRA directly to a qualified charity and that counts towards your required minimum distribution and then you don’t have to pay taxes on it because you’re giving it to a charity. So that’s one of the ways you can do it if you’re over 70 and a half. But we do have clients who are in that spot between say they retire at 60 and then they don’t have to start taking their RMDs until 70, well they have 10 years where they have no income and they don’t have to do the required minimum distribution. There are some planning opportunities there that you could take advantage of. And one of those is if your income is low enough, is to start doing Roth conversion. So you can reduce the size of your IRA so that when you hit 70 and a half you don’t have to take as much out and start converting some of that when you’re in a low tax bracket into a Roth. We encourage that for a lot of our clients, especially when we’re doing planning and we see the opportunity where there’s not going to be a lot of income. Additionally, you could just take extra distributions before you hit 70 and a half, trying to shrink the size of the IRA. The idea is to get as much money out of that account when the taxes are low so that when you hit that RMD amount, that there’s not as much <Inaudible>. So Roth conversions is one way to do it, just taking money out and spending it which we don’t always encourage it if you don’t need the money. And then the qualified charitable distribution is another great way to do it as well.

As Aaron said, one of the things that really pops out when we do planning for clients, particularly does that don’t need the money today and don’t have the income because they’re in a low tax bracket, but they have a pretty good sized 401k IRA, is to do that Roth conversion. But don’t go crazy with this, you don’t want to push yourself off in the 25% tax bracket. So you look at how much you can take out in a low 10%, maybe 15% tax bracket and take advantage of that.

Or tax-free.

Or tax-free.

Yeah, there is another way too, and one other thing that a lot of people don’t realize as well is that if you’re still working and you’re 70 and a half and your employer has a 401k and your 401k plan allows rollovers into that plan, you can actually defer your RMD by rolling your IRA into your employer sponsored plan as long as you’re not more than a 5% owner of that company.

So there are some strategic reasons as they say.

Strategy <Inaudible>, an official financial plan word.

I guess you learn that as a CFP, correct.

I like it.

That is correct.

Well 844-220-0965 is the number to dial us up today, if you have a question for the panel. Again, 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965.

And while we’re on IRAs and 401ks, there has been some new tax proposals in fact I believe it is law, that if you have suffered some damage in the hurricanes, you now have the ability to make some withdrawals from your 401k and avoid the 10% penalty if you’re under the age of 59 and a half. So you still have to pay taxes on it and you have a few years to spread the taxes over. But talk to your tax preparer this year if you have some damage. You may be able to — and you need some money for your repairs and you’re tapping into your 401k to do it, there may be a way for you to get that money without the 10% penalty. So talk to your tax preparer about that.

<Inaudible> information, alright again. 844-220-0965 is the number to dial in. 844-220-0965. Jim in Orlando is up next. Jim, go ahead, you’re on with the certified financial planners with the Certified Financial Group right here on WDBO.

Good morning, Jim.

And good morning, gentleman.

Good morning, Jim.

The — if I want to do the required minimum distribution from an IRA before they send me the letter early next year, can I do that now?

Well, it won’t do you any good. I mean you could take it out now, but you’d have to take out the pro rata amount every year based on the value on December 31st on the previous year. So come next year, you’ll get a letter based on what the value is in December 31st telling you what you’ll have to take out in 2018.

Okay, <Inaudible> I need the money.

Oh, <Inaudible> well that’s a deal. Well that’s a whole different deal.

Yeah, I mean if you need the money and that’s your only source of income, then yeah, you should take the distribution.

No, that’s not the only source of income <Inaudible> I’ve had some unexpected expenses.

Sure.

And I was just wondering if it made any difference whether I do it now or do it when they send me the letter or what.

Well if you can push it off — it really depends on your income needs. So if you could push it off until next year, then that’ll apply towards your required minimum distribution for next year. It’s by calendar year, though. It’s not just within a rolling 12 months. So you have to take it every calendar year.

This year, I took it like when they send me the letter, but this time I could use that money.

Well it’s always your money Jim, so if you need the money, grab it. But you’ll have to pay taxes on it this year and then whatever your balance is left after you’ve made that withdrawal on December 31st, then you’ll have to take out that required distribution for 2018.

That’s the — the homestead exemption, you’re talking about the State of Florida for your property taxes?

Yeah. That I’m not aware of.

I haven’t heard of that, either.

That I’m not aware of.

Well I thought I heard that.

Maybe you’re thinking of the personal exemption that they’re talking about increasing.

The new tax bill.

Yeah.

They’re talking about doubling the personal exemption.

Actually, the standard deduction.

Yeah, okay. What am I going to do with that?

Well, who knows? Right now, the house bill is what it is and it’s got to go to the senate, but the house and the senate they’ll come up with a bill and hopefully something will be on the President’s desk before the end of the year to sign. So at this point, it’s just a lot of conjecture, but it’s taking a little bit of shape that we saw released on Wednesday. We have some things we can talk about that as well.

So they don’t know how much it will increase or <Inaudible>

It’s going to double.

Oh, it is.

Yes. That’s the proposal, but you never know what the house is going to do.

Okay. Alright, Jim. Thanks so much for the phone call. If you would like Jim’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Text machine up and running as well, 21232. Got a text question in, gentleman. Why do some people think the bond market is in a bubble and how is the equity market impacted?

Why is the bond market in a bubble? Why do some people think it’s in a bubble?

That’s what the texter writes in at 21232.

Well it’s been a good bond market as well as a good stock market, but what we anticipate is going to happen and we can see it happening already is the The Fed will begin tightening, which means interest rates will go up. When interest rates go up, the value of your bonds go down. I don’t care if it’s a government bond, if it’s a municipal bond, if it’s a corporate bond, all bonds act the same way. When interest rates go up, the value of your bond goes down. So you want to be careful, you don’t want to go too long with bonds in terms of maturity. But most people need some bonds in their portfolio or bond funds as we use them for stability. So that’s <Inaudible> maybe talk about. It’s been a wonderful time for bonds the last several years, the bond prices have been very stable and that’s the good news. The bad news is that yields have been awful. Yep.

Alright, well that’s an interest text.

There you go.

Just like that, 21232. I think you guys have got some workshops coming up this week for —

Actually today, Gary Abely has a workshop on Medicare, it was a full house. In fact, there’s standing room only so if you made a reservation you better get there because that’s going to be a — it is sold out.

It is a sold out show, standing room only, so if you don’t want to stand, get there early.

However, next Saturday everything you wanted to know about mutual funds. This is another great one Gary Abely, CFP, CPA will be conducting next Saturday morning in our offices in Altemont Springs. And a lot of people own mutual funds. You have them in your 401ks, you have them in your IRAs, you may have them individually. There was an interesting article, Aaron. I don’t know if you saw it — or maybe you did see. The Morningstar?

Yes.

Why don’t you talk about that?

Morningstar is — it was actually in ad Wall Street Journal last week and basically talked about the history of Morningstar, how they got started. And how so many people have come rely on the start rating system to make mutual fund investment decisions. And Morningstar — the Morningstar rating system if you’re not familiar with it, Morningstar is a company who houses data on mutual funds. Started collecting data back in the ’80s, ’70s and ’80s.

Yeah.

And started out of Chicago and they started collecting data on mutual funds and as time has progressed, they were publishing that data so that people could get an easy way or financial advisors at the time could get an easy way to consolidate individuals and do comparisons on different mutual funds. Well they ended up developing a rating system, and it’s the star system. It goes from one star to five stars, with five stars being the best within their rating system. But it’s purely looking backwards. It’s looking into the past based off of performance to determine which are the funds that did the best in the past. And they never meant it for forward looking. The problem is that a lot of people misconstrue what that rating system is all about and they use it for forward looking to make mutual fund decisions going forward. Always assuming that funds that have performed well in the past are going to continue to perform well in the future. And what the study showed is that that is very much not the case. And so it was a very interesting article on Morningstar. Did we put that on our website, yet? I don’t know <Inaudible>

I don’t know if we have or not, but the point is that you buy a five star fund today thinking that’s what it’ll be forever and <Inaudible> wake up three or five years later and find out it’s no longer a five star, it’s now a two star.

Right. And there’s a lot more that goes into mutual funds than just strictly performance. There’s manager tenure, there’s fees, there’s style drift, there’s the <Inaudible>, there’s a lot of different criteria that go into choosing and selecting a mutual fund rather than just looking strictly at performance. And unfortunately a lot of people just look at performance. And within our system, within the way we operate, performance is one of the last things that we look at.

It is important, but it isn’t the end all be all and as Aaron was alluding to, these will be some of the things that Gary will be covering next Saturday morning in our office in Altemont Springs from 11:00 on and about an hour and a half session. He’s going to talk about what you will need to look at besides just the star ratings. And mutual funds — when as soon as they get that five star rating, boy they spend the money in advertising. And that’s where you see five star — because that’s what people are gravitated to because it’s the only criteria that the general public really has <Inaudible>. It’s like a five star hotel. That kind of — but it isn’t the end all be all and only to be disappointed somewhere down the road. So as Aaron said, we have a very sophisticated methodology to use from the Center for Fiduciary Studies that looks at 11 distinct criteria in analyzing mutual funds. Every mutual fund is scored and graded before it goes into the client’s portfolio, and then we grade it again on a regular basis to determine whether or not we want to keep it in there. And performance is important, but it isn’t the end all be all.

Just like five stars on Yelp is not the end all be all for a restaurant.

I guess not, yeah.

And I think part of the point there too, I mean performance is what everybody wants, it’s why you invest money. Because you want performance. However, when you’re comparing — there are 20,000, 30,000 mutual funds out there. There’s actually more mutual funds than there are stock in the New York Stock Exchange. And when you’re comparing mutual funds, if you have several that are very close in performance, there are a lot of criteria that you need to be checking off underneath that before you’re making an investment selection. You can just go for the one that just performs the best.

So once again, if you want more information about everything you wanted to know about mutual funds, Gary Abely, CPA, CFP will be covering that at our offices next Saturday, I said 11:00. It starts at 9:00, 9:00 next Saturday morning from 9:00 to 11:00. You can go on our website, that’s financialgroup.com, financialgroup.com, you can make a reservation right there, and we hope to see you there.

Alright, well if you’ve got a question for Aaron or Joe Bert, it’s 844-220-0965. That’s 844-220-0965. The text machine is up and running as well, 21232, already got a text question in, we’ll take some more right after we get the Three Big Things You Need To Know.

Hey, welcome back. This is On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO. We are two minutes away from the latest news, weather, and traffic with Dave Wahl over at the News 965 with Joe and Aaron Bert are live here in the studio taking your phone calls and your text questions at 844-220-0965, that’s 844-220-0965. So we’ve got a text question in there, we’ll get to those on the other side. But Joe, I believe you have an announcement that you can see today <Inaudible>.

Not only can you hear us, if you are so inclined you can tune in and watch what goes on behind-the-scenes. It’s not a pretty picture, but it is what it is, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

It is what it is. Go on Facebook, Facebook live, go to Facebook.com and Facebook/certifiedfinancialgroup. That’s our CFG webpage on Facebook, you can like us and follow us and you can also go there and view our livestream of today’s show and future shows as well. We also post a lot of really good information on there, so if you follow us you’ll be updated whenever we post anything. We also put our TV appearances up there and lots of good stuff. So Facebook.com/certifiedfinancialgroup.

I also like looking at your TV appearances.

<Inaudible>.

Well I tell you what, we’ve got one minute. We went a little long in the first segment, we have one minute away from the latest news, weather, and traffic, so real quick wanted to make the announcement about Gary Abely’s workshop tonight, sold out.

That’s gone, but next Saturday, 9:00 everything you ever wanted to know about mutual funds but didn’t know who to ask, Gary Abely will cover that in detail next Saturday morning at our offices in Altemont Springs between 9:00 and 11:00. Go to our website, that’s financialgroup.com, financialgroup.com, click on workshops. You can make your reservation right there, I’m sure that one is going to fill up fast if it’s not already filled up.

Alright, and 844-220-0965 is the phone number to dial us up today. We’ve got a full lines open, all lines are open and now is the perfect time to call in, get your questions screened so that when we come back from the latest news, weather and traffic you’ll be able to get it answered right here on the radio. So it really guarantees we don’t run out of time. Again, 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Tax machine is up and running as well, 21232. <Inaudible> do about 160 characters, that’s all we can see on our screen. If it’s anything longer than 160, we may not get to it. Again, 21232. Time for news.

And welcome back, this is On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO. All part of our ask the experts weekend we do right here for you on WDBO. Joe and Aaron Bert are here in the studio, taking your phone calls today at 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Joe, what can the audience call you about today?

Once again, Aaron and I are here to answer any questions that you might have regarding your personal finances. As we say, we go through school and they don’t teach you this stuff. We try some of this and try some of that, and we wake up when we’re 55 years old and find what we have is our collection of financial accidents. And we are here as your financial body shop to fix you up and answer questions that you might have, decisions you might have to make regarding your 401k, regarding an IRA, regarding real estate, stocks and bonds and mutual funds and long-term healthcare, and annuities and life insurance, all of that any more, all of those questions that might be lingering through your mind, didn’t know who to ask. Well we are here. And the good news for you is there’s absolutely nobody in line, so all you have to do is pick up the phone and dial these magic numbers.

Magic, magic. 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Text machine is up and running as well, 21232, just keep it to about 160 characters, that’s all we can see on our screen. If the message gets cuts off, we may not be able to answer properly. So that’s when you just give us a phone call, 844-220-0965. Text or <Inaudible> in gentleman. I am 72, not working, and am required to take withdrawals annually from my federal government TSP as well as my annual RMD from the TSP. Can I place the — and that’s why we ask you to keep it to 160 characters. The question has been cut off and therefore <Inaudible> maybe.

You know what I think he might be going with that? And this is a common question. Can you place those RMDs into a Roth?

Okay.

And that’s what my guess is, and the short answer is that is no. You can’t do that. You have to take the RMD, have to pay taxes on it. You can take out more than that but the RMD — that’s a strange thing, on how would they ever know — what’s what? But the truth of the law is that you can’t take that RMD and place it into a Roth.

Right. You have to realize taxes on that RMD, but you can take more than the RMD and put that into a Roth.

Yes.

So if you have — say your RMD is $1,000 and you could take out $2,000, put 1,000 of it into a Roth conversion, pay the taxes on it, keep it into a Roth so it would stay tax-deferred, and then take the remainder and you’ve got to spend it. <Inaudible>.

You got to do it.

Yep.

Alright, well just like that 21232. Let’s go to Mike in Orlando on the phone lines. Mike, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Good morning, Mike.

<Inaudible>, hey how are you doing on the is beautiful day, today?

We’re doing great, how are you?

Great. I had a question. My daughter does commercials and stuff and she earns money but she’s only 14. And I want to know, can she have her own Roth IRA since she does pay income taxes on her money that she earns?

Of course. Yes.

She can. The question is what can she invest it in, and she’s limited because she’s not 18 years old. Therein lies the problem. But she can — <Inaudible> she can put her money into a Roth. You could put it into some form of bank instrument, but I don’t believe that she can invest in mutual funds until she is of age.

Yeah, can you do a custodial IRA for her and then turn it over?

No, <Inaudible> there’s no such animal as a custodial IRA. You’re thinking of a custodial account that you would set up before somebody is before the age of 18.

Correct.

<Inaudible> good idea.

You know, if you go online and I don’t know who you use for investment purposes, but Fidelity who we use as our custodian has a great section on their website called the Fidelity Roth IRA for kids. And it allows you to open a Roth IRA for children and the parent, grandparent, or friend can manage it on behalf of the child. So yeah, that’s a great place to go, it outlines the whole thing for you and actually let’s you open an account right there if you’re interested in doing so.

And as far as contributions, they’re the same as if you’re 18, based on your income?

Yeah, well you have to have the earned income. You can put up to $5,500, it’s obviously because they’re under 50, so yeah $5,500 and you have to have that much earned income and put it right into the Roth account.

Alright, well that’s good news to hear because I only told if you can put in even $5,000 when you’re 14, you’ll thank me when you’re older.

That’s a great start <Inaudible> that’s a wonderful thing that you’re doing for her.

The key is to have her keep her hands off it because that’s the temptation that you get when you get to be a teenager or in college <Inaudible> newly married and all of that stuff, and you lose that opportunity to let the money compound and grow for you.

That’s a great idea, Mike. Thanks for the call.

Alright, no problem. Thank you guys.

<Inaudible> alright, if you want Mike’s line, it’s 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. The only thing I was thinking about at 16 was trying to <Inaudible> buy a car when I got my <Inaudible>.

Of course, that’s the key.

Alright, we wanted to talk to you guys about the new tax law. You guys had some things you wanted to share on that, let’s get to that right now.

Well you know <Inaudible> the house version was released Wednesday and they’re going to have the highest bracket as 39.6. However, there is a little hooker in there. They’re calling it the bubble tax, if your income is over $1M then that has another 6% surcharge on top of that for the next couple hundred thousand dollars to <Inaudible>, yes, yes, yes. The devil is always in the details, always in the details. So that’s in there. And there’s something that I just saw this morning about 529s. They want to liberalize that to allow you to use the 529 plan not only for college but for K through eight education. So that may be an opportunity.

K through 12.

I’m sorry, K through 12. Thank you, yes, K through 12.

<Inaudible> discriminate against the high schoolers.

K through 12 and obviously all the way through college. So that might happen, but once again this has got to go through the senate than it’s going to go through committee and who knows what the end result will be, but there was some interesting features in there and let’s hope that at least they get the corporate rate down. I think that’s critical <Inaudible>

That’s the big thing right there.

That is the big enchilada. So let’s hope that that happens. We’ve got a call here, Kyle? Who do we have?

Yeah, we have Robert in Altemont Springs. Robert, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Good morning, Robert.

Hey Robert.

Yes, yes good morning. I have a question. I’m 60 years old. I’m still working, and I would like to take money out of my retirement account. I have a thrift savings. My question is would they tax me at a higher bracket when I’m still working, or if wait a couple of years when I retire will be the lower tax rate?

And you want to withdraw, and you need the money is what you’re saying?

Yeah, but I’m still working, <Inaudible> I think I can — yeah, I think I can wait when I retire a couple of more years.

Oh, well that’s certainly the <Inaudible>.

What’s the difference with tax, the taxes <Inaudible> when they take it out? Because I’m 60 years old.

Well so you’re over 59 and a half so there is no 10% penalty or early withdrawal penalty, so you could put that out of your mind. The only thing you’re going to be taxed on is the amount that you withdraw is going to be added to your regular income. So if you’re still working and you have income, and then this additional amount will add to your income which may push you into a higher tax bracket.

So what you want to do is delay that for as long as you can so when you have little or no income, you pull it out, and then you have little or no taxes, depending of course how much you pull out. So this is where the planning comes in, Robert.

Oh, I understand.

Yeah, you understand?

Okay. <Inaudible>

<Inaudible> while we got you on the phone, let’s talk a little bit about your retirement planning and so forth.

Okay.

How long do you plan to work?

I’m 60 years old, probably two more years, 62.

A couple of more years, so you’ve got 62 and you’re going to grab Social Security at 62?

Yes. Alright, let’s talk about that. You are — you maybe making —

I also have another thing to put in the mix. <Inaudible> I also have — I know so many people don’t have, I have a retirement kind of a pension.

You have a pension, that’s great.

Yeah.

Okay, that’s good, okay.

So I’m going to have a pension, I’m going to have Social Security and I’m going to have thrift savings.

Okay. You’re probably doing in your mind what we call informal or back of the envelope financial planning, which means that — this is what virtually everybody does because they don’t know how to calculate this. So what you’ve probably done is you figured okay, I’m spending so much every month, every year, right? You know how much you’re spending, right? And then you know how much you’re bringing in with your salary and what Social Security is going to give you and what the pension might give you and that kind of balances out. And you think you’re going to be okay, that’s probably what you did, right?

Yes, exactly.

Okay. You’re about to launch into a disaster.

Maybe.

More likely than not. And I don’t want to discourage you, but I’m going to trying to avoid you becoming a casualty of — we see this often. People walk into our offices four or five years after retirement because they’ve done exactly what you’ve done, and the wheels are coming off and they don’t know why.

Right.

The reason being is because you haven’t calculated or haven’t figured in all of those incidental expenses on top of your basic living expenses like groceries, gasoline, electricity, so on and so forth. On top of that, you haven’t figured inflation because I guarantee you the price of gasoline, groceries, electricity is going to be a lot higher <Inaudible> now than what it is today. And at age 62 statistically, you’re going to live another 25 years. So if you’re out on basically kind of a fixed income, you’re going to have a decreasing lifestyle. And what you don’t want to do is jump into the retirement pool too soon, you’re grabbing Social Security at 62, when you do that you’re taking a 25% haircut over and above what you’re going to get if you would have waited until full retirement age. And also your pension that you’re getting is probably going to reduce if you grab it earlier. So I understand you’re at a point in life that you really want to kick back and enjoy life, I understand that 100%. And unfortunately — I hear you. I understand <Inaudible>

<Inaudible> a few people <Inaudible> just keep working while you can.

While you can, exactly. Because chances are you’re making more money than you were 10 years ago, is that a fair statement?

Yes, that is fair.

Yeah, so see? You’re like a professional athlete. You’re at your peak earning years, and what you want to do is keep building up that cookie jar so when you have to start withdrawing from it, you’ve got a lot of cookies.

<Inaudible>.

There you go, there you go. So what you need to do is sit down with a certified financial planner, have him or her do a plan for you to be sure that you don’t jump off a cliff too soon and you think your parachute is going to open and it doesn’t open and you find out that you run out of money when you’re 74 years old. And you’re saying paper or plastic, you know?

Yeah, I understand.

So I’m just — Robert, I’m not just here to discourage you, I’m here to give you advice that we see day in and day out when we do financial planning. This is what it’s all about.

Can I have one more question?

Of course.

Yeah, of course.

Okay. There’s two things that people say like if I pay off my mortgage.

Okay.

That’s good, or if I just pay my mortgage every month I get a tax deduction every year.

Perhaps, yes. It all depends on your situation, and that may change with the new tax laws depending on what the standard deduction is going to go to. You may lose <Inaudible>

I was always wondering what would be better, to pay off the house or just pay every month, my mortgage is affordable, you know?

Yes.

Yes, depends on what your interest rate is, how long you’ve been paying on it, I mean there’s a lot of factors that — we get that question a lot too, should I pay off my house? Well it depends on how long you’ve had the mortgage and what your interest is.

You know what happens, Robert? When people rush to pay off their house, then what they have is they have extra money that they they’re not using for the mortgage. And the extra money happens to disappear. You know, it runs through your fingers and now you’ve got extra money that you didn’t have before and the problem is you’re not saving it. So <Inaudible> when you’re paying down the mortgage, you’re forcing yourself to build equity and not to blow that money. So everybody is different, everybody is unique, but I would encourage you, Robert, to get together with a certified financial planner professional, have him or her look at your situation, and this way when you do retire you’ll retire with a high degree of confident that you’re not going to run out of money before you run out of breath.

Thank you so much, I appreciate your time.

I appreciate your call, Robert, thanks for being <Inaudible>.

Thank you, Robert.

Excellent Robert call, thank you so much. Alright, 844-220-0965 is the number to jump in on the conversation. We are very close to our Three Big Things We Need To Know, so Bob in Orlando, hang on the line. You’ll get your question right after we get the Three Big Things. But right now, I just want to say if you want to call in, it’s 844-220-0965. Or text in, it’s 21232. We are planning tomorrow —

Today.

With the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO.

It is the final segment of On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO. We are taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. But because it is the final segment, let’s get right back to our busy phone lines, talk to Chris in Titusville. Chris, go ahead, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hey, thanks for taking my call.

Sure, good morning. How can we help you?

So yeah, my situation is basically I’ve got about $70,000 in student loans. I got a couple of bachelors degrees but right now I’m working a job that’s not really what I aimed for. I’m kind of torn between applying for a better job that has to do with my degree or going back to school for my masters, and I wasn’t really sure how loans go for that. Any suggestions as far as —

How loans go for your master’s degree?

Yeah, like would I be able to put them on hold and then have a better shot of paying them off with a masters, or would it better to just go in with my bachelors degree and get the best job I can?

Well, I would get the best job you can and go to night school.

Okay. So make as much as money as I can with a degree that I have and then —

Exactly. Because what you really want is the job experience in your field. I presume you’re going to get a master’s degree in your field and not go off and do something different, right?

Exactly.

Okay. So my recommendation would be — Aaron may disagree with me.

<Inaudible>.

My recommendation would be is get a job in your field, it’s going to be entry level. Make as much as you can, work on paying down those loans and go to night school. Now that’s going to be a grind, man. That’s going to be a grind, but that’s what you’re doing. You’re laying the foundation for the rest of your life and that’s what you need to do.

Alright, great. I’m <Inaudible> it’s going to be easy, but.

Yeah.

Yeah, I’m trying to get myself in a better situation so it’s going to be a grind, I agree.

Yes.

Yeah, and I don’t think you get there by piling on more debt to go grad school, and Joe is right <Inaudible>

That’s what I was afraid of, yeah.

That’ll kill you. You’ll be paying that off for the rest of your life.

Yeah, and the experience that you’re going to receive as work experience is probably just as valuable as that degree anyways, so keep working.

And depending on who your employer is, some employers will pay for some or all of your education, the master’s degree.

That’s what I’m thinking, of maybe going to work for a university where I can get a degree as I work, something like that.

Well, even in the private sector, there’s some employers that will — depending on what your field is, some employers will pay for you to get your masters degree, so that’s <Inaudible>.

Okay, yeah that sounds like a good plan. I guess I needed to bounce some ideas <Inaudible>.

Well there you go. Thank you for call.

Thank you. Alright, thanks for the call.

Alright, Chris <Inaudible> let’s get to Bob with Orlando. Bob, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here with <Inaudible>. Oh wow, <Inaudible> there we go.

We lost Bob.

Aw.

A little feedback there. Bob had — I believe it was were there any other company sponsored retirement plans outside of the 401k?

It depends on what your employer offers, now if he’s the employer, he has a lot of options. If he’s not the employer, then the company — I mean there are a lot of options. There’s 457 plans, which are called deferred compensation plans, there’s 403bs which are usually for non-profits. There’s SEP-IRAs, there’s SIMPLE IRAs, there’s a whole gamut of retirement plans that are available. So if you’re the employer, you can find the one that fits your needs best to minimize costs and to maximum benefits for yourself and your employees. <Inaudible> yeah, so the answer is that is yes, there’s a lot of options.

As I like to say, there’s a veritable plethora.

A veritable plethora. I like it. You’ve got some goldmine phrases today.

When you get to be my age <Inaudible>.

And we are — if you just joined the show, the tail end of this, we are livestreaming on Facebook right now and we did get a question through Facebook that we’d like to address as well. And the question was is there a place to park money from a real estate investment property sale before you find another investment <Inaudible> 1031 exchange that gives you more than 45 days to <Inaudible>.

And the short answer is no. However, that being said what you want to do is talk to an attorney that is experienced in the 1031 area and he or she may have some alternatives for you because it is a very intricate part of the law. 1031 exchange is not a do-it-yourself kind of project because if you miss crossing a t or dotting an i, the whole thing will blow up on you.

And a 1031 exchange for those who aren’t aware of what it is, it gives you the ability to take an investment property and defer the gain on it by buying a life type property. So if you have a piece of land, you can sell that land for a profit, for further profit by buying another piece of land.

Well it doesn’t have to be land, it could be <Inaudible> property, investment property. So you can sell land and buy an apartment building or sell the apartment building or buy land or something that you use for investment. But 1031 exchange as we say is an area that is intricate.

And you don’t want to mess it up.

And you don’t want to mess it up, you need a qualified custodian and an attorney that knows what he or she is doing.

Alright, we have one minute. Workshop.

Workshop coming up, Gary Abely next Saturday at our office in Altemont Springs from 9:00 to 11:00. It’s going to be everything you wanted to know about mutual funds but didn’t know who to ask. And Gary would be covering that. <Inaudible> all of things we do as certified financial planners in building portfolios, the 11 distinct criteria that you should look at when you pick a mutual fund. It’s a lot more than how many stars, diamonds, or smiley faces a mutual fund may have. So he’ll be covering that from 9:00 to 11:00 in our offices in Altemont Springs, we’ll provide some light refreshments. Go to our website, that’s financialgroup.com, financialgroup.com and click on workshops, you can make a reservation right there and hope to see you there next Saturday 9:00.

Alright, that’s going to do it. <Inaudible>.

Bye Facebook <Inaudible>.

There you go. <Inaudible> waiting, okay got to send it out, we’re saying goodbye on Facebook. Alright, that’s going to do it for this week’s edition. Stay tuned for Florida Homes and Gardens and we’ll be back here with the Certified Financial Group planning tomorrow —

Well, good morning everybody, it’s another Saturday here in Central Florida, 9:00, and that means it’s time for On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5 WDBO. We have Harry Stadelmayer and Nancy Hecht live here in the studio taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

Good morning, Tom.

How are you guys today?

Oh, fantastic.

Alright.

How about this weather?

Ah, that’s really gorgeous.

This is why we live here.

I know. Can I have just the next couple of weeks of that? Now, Nancy’s smiling because I know she hates this weather.

I don’t like the temperature. I like the sunshine, but I don’t like the temperature.

So, you like it during the day, just not at night.

I — 85 or higher is good for me.

Okay, so Nancy and I have been working at Certified for right at 30 years plus and her office is next to time. There’s war <Inaudible>. War.

I don’t know how the thermostat ended up in harry’s office, but —

Oh, it’s a good thing.

Oh man, yeah.

Well, sometimes it’s funny as I walk around and I’m sweating when I walk around this building, I look into offices and the women have the electric blankets. And I’m like oh, okay, well it’s easier to get the electric blanket. Do they make the reverse of that for men? I can put a cool blanket on?

I have a sweater behind me. So, my in the office heater died, so I have to go out and buy a new one.

Aw. <Inaudible> That war gets a little <Inaudible> there at the office <Inaudible>. Well, since — Harry, since you’re sitting in Joe’s seat, what can we call you about today?

Well, today’s show is about money. Anything pocketbook related as we call it. If you have questions about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, long-term care, health insurance, life insurance, debt reduction, mortgage re-fi, I mean we will touch on all those subjects and one thing I also want to say I have people call me on Monday morning and say you know, I wanted to call but I thought it was a stupid question. Let me just say this: There is no such thing because if you’re thinking it, there might be 50 or 100 people that are thinking the same thing. You know, Nancy and I do this for a fee during the week, but today for the next hour it is absolutely free. So, we encourage you to give us a call if you have some questions about your portfolio or anything that may be pertaining to money and we’d be happy to answer that the best we can over the next hour.

Alright, just simply dial us up at 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. The text machine is up and running as well, 21232. That’s 21232. Just keep it to about 160 characters, that’s all we can see on our screen. I know if you have a lot of people that like to write in several texts to make a giant story out of it — no, no, no, no, no, no, we can’t do that. That’s when you need to have a phone call, that’s when you have to have a conversation with the panel, but if it’s a quick text, couple here couple there percentage numbers, it’s alright. 21232, 160 characters. Alright, today’s topic, let’s get straight to it. This one was interesting when I read it when you e-mailed it to me yesterday. I go ooo, I can’t wait to hear this. Your 401k could be a Goldmine if you do two simple things.

Absolutely goldmine.

Alright, let’s hear it.

Time and time again, we have folks into the office and their question is what is the one thing that I can do to retire comfortably and usually the first thing we’ll look at is what; their 401k.

Correct.

And as Nancy and I do financial planning, probably maybe next to your home the largest asset that we see walking into our door is the 401k. The two things that you must do, number one is participate. Then it’s well, my employer only matches 3% so I’m only going to do 3%. In fact, I was just getting a cup of coffee out here Tom, and I saw where you guys, it’s enrollment time, and it’s time to —

Yep, yep, yep. It’s all over the building.

And most people will maybe only match up to the 3% that the company matches because that’s all they feel like doing. You’re leaving money on the table. You’re leaving money on the table. If you do not participate, even to a small degree, the important thing is to find out what your income is and what your expenses are, and then review and maximize your 401k. That money that’s going into the 401k is on a pre-tax dollar, which means Uncle Sam’s not getting a dime of that, which if you’re in the 28% tax bracket is a 28% return on your investment. That’s a guaranteed return on your investment. So, if you’re not doing that, step number one, you need to participate and participate to the max.

And a lot of people will say I can’t afford. So, what they’re really — they don’t realize is that they’re giving the money to the government. That money is being spent anyway, so wouldn’t you much rather have it in your pocket versus making a gift to the federal government.

A lot of people don’t realize it. Pre-tax.

Pre-tax, before anyone touches it. And so if you do that over a course of 30 or 40 years on a pre-tax basis, now I know you’re going to pay taxes on it somewhere down the road, but on a pre-tax basis if you do that every pay period, you don’t miss it and then the important thing is, too, if you’re getting a raise, is look at your 401k and try to allocate it. If you’re not maximizing, which I believe next year is 18,500, if you’re not maximizing, maybe you’re only doing 8,000, but you get a raise and maybe now you can do 9,000. Step number two for your Goldmine is to take a look at your investments. If you’re participating in your 401k and it’s all going into a money market or a cash account, you’re not properly allocated. Again, this is a long-term venture. People say well, the market’s too high right now, the market is too volatile right now, I’m not sure, what if it crashes. Again, this is long-term. If you truly believe that the markets are going to be at or below where they are in the next 20 to 30 years then you know what, you need to put it under the matters, but that’s not going to happen.

And actually, the idea of <Inaudible> to have money going in because a 401k forces you to dollar cost average. You have regular amounts of money going in every single month. If the markets are going down while you’re adding, then you’re buying more shares time, after time, after time. And the name of the game is accumulating shares. Shares will equal Growth and Income when it comes time to have to use the money. It’s almost like going into the store and buying shoes on sale, and women <Inaudible> —

I think, well, no —

Shoes on sale. Oooo.

No, but everybody seems to like to buy everything on sale except for investments, which doesn’t make sense.

Yeah, that doesn’t make any sense. It’s the exact opposite with stocks for some reason. I don’t understand why everybody wants to buy high but —

Yeah.

<Inaudible> well if you have a question, 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. I actually have a question for the panel I was going to ask them today. Last week we were talking about all the potential changes that could happen with the 401k with the budget being passed this week, so my question to you guys is has there been any change? We going to be okay?

There hasn’t — well, I mean, the most prominent word last week was that it’s not going to be reduced.

Yeah <Inaudible> that, that was like 2,400?

2,500 is <Inaudible>

2,500.

Anything that dissuades people from saving just drives me crazy and I just cannot imagine that that drastic of a cut would occur. But, the president is saying that is not going to happen.

That would be devastating for folks looking at retirement because if you’re limiting the amount that you can put in, all that does is make us rely more on Social Security and we already know Social Security is not the healthiest and so as we get older — in fact, I think down the road you’re going to see the age 62 of taking retirement, “retirement”, which is really early retirement, I think that’s going to go away. I think that number is going to go up in the next 5 or 10 years up to 65, 66 and we’re going to see all the age brackets go up. So, by limiting that I think all we’re doing is shooting ourselves in the foot down the road because now we’re relying more on Social Security and that’s not a good plan.

Yeah.

I probably won’t see Social Security by the time I retire.

Don’t say that.

<Inaudible>

I’ve been paying in my entire life. I hope to see some of it.

Well, I mean, you know, and it used to be that you could shake hands with the person that you were contributing for because for every one person receiving there was five people contributing. Now that’s flipped. There’s so many people taking and so few people that are paying into the system. However, even though the trust fund is stated to run dry, there’s still the tax dollars going in. So.

Okay.

So, it may not be as doom and gloom as —

No, no, no, but — and the one change that has been made so far is that full retirement age has been pushed out. As Harry said early, I think that that will change — also go from 62 to 65. One good thing that I would love to see happen that will make a huge difference and won’t impact retirement age; if you defer or delay beyond your full retirement age, you get an automatic 8% per year up until age 70. If that’s reduced just to 5%, which is still a really nice guarantee in this world, that’s going to save an awful lot of money. And on a 5% bump is not bad and I would take it.

I’d take it.

That’s a guarantee.

Yeah, that’s awesome.

There’s very little in the financial world that is actually guaranteed.

Well, you guys have just brought good news to me this morning. This is great. This will be the best first 10 minutes I’ve had all week. 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965 is the number to call in on the — to get the question answered here by the certified financial planner professionals at Certified Financial Group; Harry Stadelmayer and Nancy Hecht here. 21232 is the text number. Now, one of the other things we get a lot about on the 401k and we were talking about the 401k and the benefits <Inaudible> I can’t afford it even though it’s pre-tax, a lot of people don’t realize that, but if you put it away there are ways to take money out of the 401k without being penalized. A lot of people don’t realize that in the form of a 401k loan. Is that something you advise somebody who maybe is still on that fence?

It depends on the situation. You don’t want to treat your 401k as a savings account or your emergency nest egg if you will. But in certain situations, someone maybe is a first time home buyer. There’s some benefits there. If you’re looking at reducing —

Some type of medical emergency.

Medical emergency, there are reasons for doing that and typically most 401k loan programs have a loan provision in that you pay yourself back over a period of time. And so in certain emergency situations — the problem with that is in most cases once you know it’s available, it does become — it can be abused, and that’s what we want to be careful — because again, remember this 401k is for your retirement. It’s not for your every day expenses.

For a piggy bank.

And there’s a reason there’s a penalty.

Right, right, and the interest that you pay yourself back is, I think, relatively high. And if somebody retires or leaves employment and they have an outstanding loan and they can <Inaudible> in a lump sum replace it, that all becomes taxable.

And that could really hit you hard.

Well yeah, especially if you’re under full retirement age, it’s taxable plus penalties.

And for those that are retiring and maybe have a — have rolled their 401k into their IRA, there’s also a way of getting short-term loans out of your IRA and that would be pulling the money out, just making sure that you put it back within 60 days and that will avoid any tax and/or penalties if you’re under age 59 and a half. So, there is a way of accessing those funds if need be for emergency situations. But again, we don’t typically recommend you do that. But the IRA has a 60 day provision <Inaudible> put it back, so there are some options there.

Great information. Harry Stadelmayer, Nancy Hecht, in the studio taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. It’s time to get the three big things you need to know, but Samantha and Lewis have called in. We will get to your question on the other side. Right now we pause to throw it over to Dave Wall. Here are the three big things you need to know. 9:24 here at News 96.5 WDBO, you are listening to On the Money with the Certified Financial Group right here on News 96.5 WDBO. 844-220-0965 is the number you’re going to want to have in the back of your head when you hear Harry Stadelmayer and Nancy Hecht say something. You’ll go ooo, I’ve got a question about that. Because they are the certified financial planners here in the studio taking your phone calls and your text questions. Before the break, we had two great calls come in, so we’ll want to get right to them first. Let’s start off with Samantha in Orlando. Samantha, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group right here on WDBO. Good morning.

Good morning, thank you.

What’s your question?

My question is we have $100,000 liquid and my husband wants to put it in the money market and I’d like to put it in the stock market, which we don’t know what to do.

Well, so, this is a discussion that I have with my husband and I have with my clients also. You have to determine between the two of you what is a comfortable amount to always have in cash. And if the 100,000 is something that you both agree on, then you keep it in a money market account. I happen to think personally that that’s a little bit much to always have in cash. That happens to be the comfort zone for my husband also, but I don’t know if you have talked about — well what is your comfort zone? How much do you want to keep in cash and how much do you want to invest versus the 100,000 that he’s comfortable with?

I think $4,000 would be fine.

How much —

The mortgage is only — our mortgage and taxes are only $2,500 a month and he makes 200,000 and I make 100,000, so even if he lost his job I could cover the mortgage. If I lost my job, he could cover it, so I just don’t think we need all that money liquid.

Samantha, is this the only money that you have liquid? Just this?

Yes, right now. We do have another $60,000, but we’re doing some renovations on the house and we’d like to put a pool in.

Okay, so I agree with Nancy. I think 100 is a bit much. However, the other factor here is that you have a very nice income and obviously you’re meeting your needs from an expense and debt standpoint. So, in my opinion, I tend to agree with you. I think you should maybe keep three months — a lot of planners will say three to six months of emergency cash, meaning if you lose your job, that type of thing, but I think 100 is a little strong. You’re still very young and you’ve got many years in the market, and I would tend to say that maybe you leave 15 to 20, in my opinion, and take the rest and move it into the market. And if you’re not comfortable dumping all 60, 70, 80 whatever that number is in, dollar cost average in over the next six months and take advantage of the highs and lows of the market. We don’t know where this thing’s going, it’s going to end at some point, but long-term I agree with you, Samantha.

Well, and when Harry says three months, it’s replacing income not three months of expenses, three months of income.

Mm.

Okay, three months of combined income?

Correct. Well, that’s what I would look at being a little bit more conservative. So, if you’re looking at more like 40,000 always kept in cash and then the 60 that you can invest. And as Harry said, don’t invest it all at one time.

And his fear is that if the market were to drop — so what you’re saying is yes it’s okay to put that money in the stock market, just don’t dump — like write one check out.

Right, right. You want to have — put together a diversified portfolio and then over — if you have $60,000 to invest, take six, seven, eight months to invest it and do a regular chunk of money and a regular period of time. Try and look for days when the markets are negative and that’s when you buy the items that you’ve identified you wanted to buy.

And the other part of this is —

Would it be okay just to call like Charles Schwab or one of the — Prudential, or — he has Prudential, I have Charles Schwab. Is it okay just to go through there or are you saying look for own individual accounts?

Well, first of all I would — if you’re not working with a planner or an advisor, I would recommend you do that. You’re 56, that’s a large amount of money and I wouldn’t want to fly this plane alone if you’re not really sure where you’re going and what you’re doing. I would contact an advisor or professional that does this for a living instead of just going on a website and saying let me pick the six five-star funds because that may not be in your best interest.

Right.

And have a qualified <Inaudible> plan put together and feel free to give us a call, 407-869-9800. Or, go to our website, financialgroup.com, and you can request a complimentary consultation.

Yeah, financialgroup.com. Recommend that for Samantha and anybody else that might be in the same situation. Alright, Samantha, thanks so much for the phone call. If you want Samantha’s line, it’s 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. Lewis and Lane, you guys are up next. You have great questions. We want to get to them on the other side, but right now we have to pause for the latest news, weather, and traffic, right here on News 96.5 WDBO. This is On the Money where we are planning tomorrow —

Today —

With the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO. Hey and welcome back, this is the second part of the Certified Financial Group’s On the Money right here on News 96.5 WDBO. Harry Stadelmayer and Nancy Hecht live here in the studio answering your phone calls at 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. Text machine is up and running as well, 21232. Got a lot of great calls on the line. We’re going to get to them all right now here in this longer segment. But first, I just want to <Inaudible> for anybody that might be joining us during the latest news, weather, and traffic, Harry, what do you do and what can they call you about?

This show is all about money, how to make it, earn it, spend it, invest it. Any question that you may have about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, long-term care, your mortgage, life insurance, any other question that you may have. Again, there’s no such thing as a dumb question or a crazy question. If you’re thinking it, a lot of people are. We’re here to answer your questions for the next 30 minutes or so, so get in before the lines fill up, so help us out, come on in, and ask us. We’re ready and waiting.

Yes we are.

Yeah, 844-220-0965 is the number to do that, so let’s get back to our phone lines. First, let’s go to Lewis in Melbourne. Lewis, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hi Lewis.

Morning.

What’s your question?

Morning guys, how you doing?

Good, Lewis.

Yeah, I was calling — I’ve had — we have always had a financial planner and we’ve had some financial planners over the last 15 years or so, and I was trying to maybe get some input into the best way to evaluate the performance of our financial planners. I don’t think I’ve been real happy over the years. Maybe — And maybe the way I’m looking at it isn’t entirely right, but I’ve tried to look at the S&P, the Dow, global Dow, maybe the Vanguard US Index, and it is — even my own 401k, which is not managed by my financial planner — as metrics to compare against percentage growth or not. But is there a better way to do that? I mean, that’s the way I’ve been doing it and I just wanted to make sure if there was a better approach to evaluating the performance of the financial planner.

Well, one thing we do, Lewis, is we offer a second opinion. So, there’s us and other firms out there I assume that would offer a second opinion on your portfolio. But, as far as I’m concerned, it’s not just performance of your portfolio. We are very service oriented, so it’s important to me how often are you having a face-to-face meeting with your financial planner so that they can keep up to date on what’s going on in your life and maybe changes in your saving and investing plans, and then they can keep you abreast of what’s going on in the markets and how it’s impacting you on the short-term and the long-term.

Yeah, I think just based on performance, evaluating the planner. Because if you’re looking at — you may have told your planner that you want to be moderately conservative and so hopefully they’ve accommodated you in that aspect. And so maybe your returns aren’t as good as your neighbor’s. I think there’s several issues; you need to make sure you trust this individual. I don’t know how long you’ve been working with him. You want to hopefully make sure they’re a certified financial planner, and hopefully they offer to do some actual financial planning, not just investments, saying that you should be guying X, Y, Z and that’s it because I think a good, true financial planner will look at not just your investments, but the big picture and look at planning as well.

And one thing that people are getting caught up on right now, Lewis, is that the markets are doing so phenomenal this year, and this year does not an investment portfolio make. Investing is long-term, long-term in our world is five years or more. Anything beyond that is really saving and/or trading. So, a lot of it has to do with the relationship and making sure that you’re both on the same page in more than just the numbers. Did you have something else you wanted to say or ask.

Yeah, I think in fairness the financial planners I had in <Inaudible> have done a good job of the overall planning, where do we want to be, <Inaudible> do we want to be. I do trust them. They’ll meet with me as often as I want to meet with them, but at the end of the day just from a quantitative perspective, and I agree with you, if I’m down one year or two years against the market or something like that it’s not that big a deal, but <Inaudible> 15 years, I mean this is across multiple planners, but I just have not performed from a pure percentage perspective with the market. My question is why bother with a financial planner. Why not just go with the S&P and I’d have been much better off.

And Lewis, I’m going to suggest that you take advantage of our offer for a second opinion on your portfolio.

Yeah, I agree.

And just get a fresh set of eyes that are really just going to do nothing but give you an opinion.

Okay.

Alright.

No, I appreciate it.

Yeah give us a call at — our office number is 407-869-9800. And again, it’s just a very low-key, one hour meeting and we’ll just kind of review everything and hopefully you’ll walk out with a better understanding or a better feeling. Whether you’re <Inaudible> or not. Yeah peace of mind.

Peace of mind or a giant number that’s going to save you some money in the long run.

And as far as the review goes and the opinion, we use third party, completely independent, rating services and none of us have an axe to grind. We have no products to sell. We work for our clients.

Alright.

Lewis, thanks so much for the phone call, we really do appreciate you listening this morning and dialing us up. If you would like Lewis’ line, it’s 844-220-0965. I’m looking at the text machine. We have some text questions in there. We’ll get to those in just a moment. Let’s go to Lane in Orlando. Lane, you’re on WDBO, good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, how are you?

I’m good. My question is I inherited some money from my mom when she passed and I’m at a loss as to what to do with it right now. It’s sitting in a savings account. I’m 62 years old, I work for municipality, so I’m in the Florida Retirement System. I’ve been there 20 years. Should I open a Roth IRA or is it too late at my age?

No, it’s not too late. Can we talk about — is this the only monies that you have or obviously you have money in the Florida Retirement and you’ve been contributing, I’m hoping, for awhile in that. Is this the only money, Lane, that you have that is non-qualified if you will? Non-IRA.

Yes.

It is, okay.

I have a small — we have like a 457B at work that I contribute to, but it’s lost more over the years than it’s gained, so there’s only about like $20,000 in there.

Well, that’s a whole other issue that should be looked at if you’ve lost money over the last couple years, that needs to be addressed as well. But, my recommendation is a Roth — what kind of money are we talking about, Lane? Are we looking at 100, 1M, 10M?

Oh, lord no. It’s more like 25,000, 30,000.

Okay. Do you have any debt?

No, we just paid our house off. I do have a vehicle payment, but other than that, it’s just day to day living.

Well, congratulations on the house payoff. I would suggest that you invest the money whether it be in a Roth — you may or may not qualify for the Roth depending on your income, but it’s certainly another option to put money in. Again, you don’t get the tax deduction or it’s not pre-tax, but it certainly would come out tax free down the road. But, it sounds like this is money that it’s kind of found money and I would get the money to work. But again, need to be careful about the investments you select.

And we had an earlier discussion with a caller about an emergency fund. So, if part of all this $20,000 that you inherited ends up being your emergency fund, then having it in a money market account is the perfect place for it. So, might be worthwhile again to have somebody do a financial plan for you and look at whether Roth is something that you can do. As Harry mentioned, there are income limitations when you have qualified plans through your employer, or if there might be some better use of the dollars.

Okay, can I do a money market through the bank?

Yes you can, yes you can.

Absolutely.

Okay.

But again, a money market won’t give you more than less than 1%. So be aware of that.

<Inaudible> money.

That’s the place to go. If this is emergency safe money, correct.

Okay. Thank you.

Alright, thank you Lane.

Alright, Lane, thank you so much for the phone call. If you would like Lane’s line, it’s 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. James in Norman Beach. James, good morning. You’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Good morning. Great show, guys. I had the TSP account. I retired three years ago. I’m 64 and it has about 400K in it. And I was just wondering what your opinion is on what I should do with it. I don’t need the money, I have a pension coming in, the house is paid off, and I just thought — I know if have to take it out starting at 70, but what’s your suggestion on what to do with it at this point?

My suggestion, James, would be as — we’re starting to sound like a broken record, but you need somebody to give you — do a financial plan for you, get some questions answered in reference to your attitudes about risk knowing that you need to start taking some withdrawals in six years. It’s still into the letter range as far as we’re concerned, so there’s plenty of time to allow the money to invest and grow for you, but it’s really hard on the radio to say that you should take a chunk and put it here, and a chunk to put in here, and a chunk to put in here without looking at how you’re living your life, what kind of life cycle and family events you may or may not have coming up. A financial plan followed by some investment recommendations is the most prudent suggestion I can make.

James, are you — is the money still at work? At your place where you worked?

Yes. Yes it is and I know I have to take it out in six years or start taking it out. Is it better to start now little by little or just wait until I’m 70 and have to take it out.

Well, as Nancy said, you really, in my opinion — you need some guidance because this is obviously a huge decision. You don’t want to make a mistake. One of your options is to, if you’re interested in getting it out of the plan at work, you certainly can do what we call a direct rollover and move the money and have a financial planner manage the assets, put the assets to work for you. If you develop a relationship with the planner, that’s what I would highly suggest because again you’ve got many decisions to make and some can be catastrophic if you’re not careful.

And James, one of the points you just addressed with should you start taking the money out now, could be a valid point depending on what happens with the tax law changes.

Exactly.

However, Harry mentioned a direct rollover. I’m not a fan of leaving money where you are no longer and if you withdraw directly from the corporate plan, there’s an automatic 20% withholding. If you do a rollover and it does seem that it’s prudent to start taking withdrawals now, you can manage your taxability. You may only want to pay 10% in taxes on those withdrawals as opposed to 20. So, those are the types of questions that we can answer for our clients.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thanks for listening, James. Appreciate it.

Alright James, thanks so much for the phone call. If you’d like James’ line, it’s 844-220-0965. Want to move over to the text machine. We’ve got a bunch of questions in the text machine today. Let’s start off with the bottom everybody <Inaudible> waiting for this for a little while: Are reverse mortgages a good idea? I’m 65, my spouse is 57, the house is paid for, we have no family to leave the house to and are struggling on Social Security.

Then I say yes.

That’s a great, great question. There’s so many misnomers on reverse mortgages. They can be a wonderful, wonderful tool if used correctly. My concern there is that you’re awful young in a reverse mortgage world and I’m not sure that you’re going to get the benefit that you think you may receive because, again, there are some restrictions. Certainly, a reverse mortgage is only for ages 62 and older. The spouse is 57. So, —

Oh yeah, both of the mortgage holders have to be 62 and up.

Yeah, I think we have a little problem there as far as qualifying at this point. And you may be a little young for the reverse mortgage. However, down the road that may be a great idea.

Okay.

Especially if you’re struggling and it’s just Social Security that you’re living on.

What is the recommended sequence of funds to use when cash is needed? Deferred comp, investments with higher returns <Inaudible>, 401k — and that’s when it cuts off. That’s why we ask you to <Inaudible>.

Well, in my opinion if you have after tax dollars, you have maybe an investment portfolio, you may have an investment that hasn’t performed well — well, first of all, hopefully you have an emergency fund. We’ve been hammering that all day long. But, assuming you don’t, my sequence typically then is if I’m looking for money, depending on age, I don’t think the age is listed, but I would look for after tax — pre-65. I would look at after tax money, money that may be invested that haven’t done real well and that’s maybe where I would start because anything out of the 401k, the tax deferred will be 100%.

Although, from a non-retirement portfolio, if there’s some gains that can be matched up with some losses to get some liquid cash on the table, then that’s a nice thing to do also.

Okay, and one more before we get to the three big things you need to know even though we do have some more tax questions — we’ll get to them all, don’t worry: I was told that just gross income is below 100,000, capital gains are not taxed, is this correct? Is there a ceiling or max amount allowed?

There is and we need to look it up on the chart.

Alright, pull out the chart.

It’s been down there forever. This time we’ve got to go to the chart. <Inaudible>

Yeah <Inaudible> income level now, it depends on if the person is single or married.

Yeah, in theory the answer is yes, but there are some limitations that we may need to get.

Let’s let Harry look at the chart. So, we’ll get the three big things you need to know. If you want to call the show, it’s 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. The text machine number is 21232. We just ask you to keep it to about 160 characters. We’ll get your question answered after we get the three big things you need to know.

This News 96.5 WDBO.

Here it is, the final segment, last four minutes to get your questions answered with Harry Stadelmayer and Nancy Hecht, the certified financial planner professionals at the Certified Financial Group at 844-220-0965. Man, this hour went by quick. A lot of great questions asked today.

Really good questions.

The weather has brought out the great questions today. I love it. Absolutely.

Best listeners, don’t we?

Yeah, we had everybody — everybody on WDBO is an excellent, excellent listener. That’s why I love bring in the experts to share them with. It’s fantastic.

Alright, so our last text was asking about capital gains tax. The capital gains tax is applied if your taxable income falls below the 25% tax bracket which, for those filing single, it’s 37,900 to 91,009 <?> and for filing joint it’s 75,900 to 153,100.

Well, there’s your answer.

You have to do a thumbnail on your taxes and see if you’re going to have to pay capital taxes.

Well, we’d like to thank the chart. The chart comes in handy.

Yes it does.

Once again. Love the chart. We need a <Inaudible> for the chart. Every time we have to use the chart — we go to the chart about once a show. Need to make a ding, ding time for the chart sounder. Alright, now one more text in here at 21232. I have 190K mortgage paying 1,330 a month. How much more should I pay every month to pay it off in 15 years?

It’s somebody that’s talked about this in the past. If you can make bi-monthly payments which has to be done via a draft, you can knock it off — you can knock 10 years off. If they just make one extra payment directly to principal a year, you should knock on average 8 to 10 years off your mortgage.

Okay.

That’s a good rule of thumb.

And you can just set that up with whoever services your mortgage?

Yes, but if you’re going to make an extra payment directly to principal only, you could just do that by writing a check and noting on there with the payment that this is directly to principal only.

Okay. Got another text question here, 21232: I have an annuity through Athene and I made 23.51 return — I’m assuming that’s percent. That’s why we have to proofread our text here folks — is that good or should I go into stocks?

Oh my, we are —

23% over how long a period of time?

Question is is that per year or is that for last year, or is that over the last 20 years?

<Inaudible> re-balance your portfolio, scrape those gains off. It’s a tax deferred bucket, so nothing’s going to be taxable and re-allocate and hang on to those gains.

Chances are that you are already in stocks if you had a 23.5% return in the last year or two. Chances are, you’re — within that annuity, you may already have access — if it’s a variable, you may already be in “stocks” or a stock fund.

Alright, last 30 seconds real quick, upcoming workshops.

Yes, the upcoming workshops are November 11th, Everything You Want to Know About Mutual Funds; January 6th, that’s 2018, When Can You Retire, Know Your Numbers. Both of these are hosted by Gary Abley from 9:00am to 11:00am.

In our office and they’re free.

Alright Harry, what’s the best number to reach you guys at during the week?

407-869-9800. 407-869-9800. We would love to sit and chat if you have any other questions.

Alright, that’s going to do it for this week’s edition of On the Money. We’ll be back here next Saturday, 9:00

Well good morning everybody it’s another Saturday at 9:00am and that means it’s time for On the Money, Certified Financial Group 96.5 WDBO. We have Joe Bert and Nancy Hecht live in the studio, good morning, everyone.

Good morning!

Joe, what are we here for?

We are here to take any questions that our listeners might have regarding their personal finances. As we say we go through life trying some of this, trying some of that, wake up at 55 years old and look across the kitchen table to Loretta and say Loretta, paycheck’s going to stop someday and how are we going to continue this wonderful lifestyle we have? And that’s what we do at Certified Financial Planners, day in and day out at the Certified Financial Group. Monday through Friday we charge a fee but on Saturday morning it is absolutely free so if you’ve got any questions regarding your personal finances as it might relate to questions about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, long-term health care, IRAs, annuities, reverse mortgages, all that and more, Nancy and I are here to take your calls. And the good news for you, there is absolutely nobody in line because we just started the program.

I just unlocked their phones.

So there we go! So if you have any questions about anything just pick up the phone and dial these magic numbers, and you don’t even need to use your real name, you can pretend you’re Jack or Daphne or Laverne or anybody.

Oh, Sofia, we’re just waiting for Sofia, we had a Sofia last week, just wanted to call and call himself Sofia.

And Luigi.

And Luigi, that’s right.

Let’s see if we get a Luigi here.

Or Angelo.

Angelo’s out on a boat this morning and will not be calling.

844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. The text machine is up and running as well, 21232. We ask you to just keep it to about 160 characters, that’s all we can see on our screen so let’s just keep that there nice and simple, simple questions there, if we have to make two or three texts that’s when you just need to call in.

<Inaudible> bounce back.

We’ve gotten some novels on the text line before and said nah nah nah you’ve got to call in for that one. All right, topic of today, Nancy, don’t do this to your family, after three years the estate will finally be settled.

Right, that’s it, yes. My father-in-law was a wonderful man, he spent his life and his career in the world of art, and was not business minded concerned at all. Sadly the last five years of his life predominately under home health care or hospitalized due to Parkinson’s refused to sign a will, a living will, or give anybody durable power of attorney, so the hospitalization then after he passed away in 2014 it became a nightmare. So here we are three years later. His estate consisted of a retirement account, a bank account and a house, not a huge estate. Had a wife, who is still alive, she’s in an assisted living ever since he’s been in the hospital so my husband has had to petition the court to become executor, financial guardian, physical guardian, so after all of the legal costs which were significant we’re looking at an estate of about $135,000, finally again three years later it’s being settled. $77,000 of it going to the State of New Jersey.

Wow. Ouch.

So had they been organized and signed these documents which they had —

But he refused to sign them.

None of that would happen. Well, him refusing to sign it was sort of pushed by my stepmother-in-law, a great title. She was afraid she was going to lose, well, by her negligence she’s lost a big chunk of it to the State of New Jersey. So anybody who does not want to do this to their family please feel free to e-mail me at nancy@financialgroup and I will send you a financial organizer. We have a wonderful financial organizer that has all kinds of information in it from who to contact where all the important papers are, where you want to be buried, what you’d like to be said at your funeral, everything. It’s really easy to use, you can have everything in one place, and not put your family through all this anguish that we’ve gone through for three years.

Wow. That stinks.

Well that’s what happens. You know, we go through life and then we don’t expect that day to ever come and then you get ill and then you can’t think about it, don’t want to think about it and you think if you don’t do it it’s not going to happen and —

You’ve got to trust some other family members and then they start thinking different ways, and–

It’s unreal, and I contend from 30 some odd years in business weddings and funerals bring out the worst in people and when you do dumb things–

<Inaudible> yeah, okay, all right, yeah–

I have a wedding coming up in five months.

Every one of my family members!

We’re in the wedding part of it right now but anyways please be kind to your family, let them know your intentions and e-mail me. I’ll send you the financial organizer.

And that’s not a slight on my Italian friends because I’m half-Italian, so I know what it’s like.

Well if you have a question about that or anything for Nancy or Joe, 844-220-0965, again the number, 844-220-0965 and we’ll start off our conversation in Orlando with Judy! Judy, go ahead you’re on the Certified Financial <Inaudible>

Judy, welcome.

Thank you very much. My husband and I we both have two joint brokerage accounts and we have both of us have two IRAs with the stock market at an all-time high is there anything we should be doing to protect ourselves when it falls? I mean, we have some real stocks, should we kind of sell the real stock and put it into bonds? I mean, our sons are mostly in mutual funds and municipal bonds but we do have some real stock.

Judy, I love your question because Joe and I were discussing this just before we went on the air. I have a question for you first. You said you had joint accounts and you both have IRAs. Do your joint accounts have anything like transfer on death, payable on death, any kind of designation like that after naming you and your husband as owners?

Yes, they’re all —

And you have primary and contingent beneficiaries, right?

Uh, yes.

All right, perfect, okay. So as we are doing regular reviews and updates for our clients we’re looking at exactly what you’re asking about and if there are days and areas you might want to take some of those gains off the table and re-allocate, rebalance your portfolio, rebalancing and re-allocating is something that we do frequently. Can’t be afraid to take gains and move them into maybe something a little bit more conservative because that’s how you hang onto them. However you want to be tax aware. You know something’s going to be a capital gain and certainly going to be taxable rate at an ordinary income. And a lot of people now are looking at their portfolios as you are saying wow the markets have been up so much and this is so great, and I have five things that are doing phenomenal in that, a couple things that are doing okay, and okay last year when the markets were flat or in 2015 when the markets were negative people were happy to have maybe a five, a seven, an 8% annualized return, so looking at your portfolios as a whole based on your time horizon, your risk tolerance and as you’re asking maybe taking some gains off the table and rebalancing your portfolio is a great thing to do.

Judy, but what I want to be sure is, is you’re not trying to what we call, time the market. In other words you’re not looking at the market in your portfolio and saying boy it’s really up there, I think I’m just going to cash out now and sit on the sidelines because I know when the inevitable correction is going to come. This is the biggest mistake that every investor makes because you can get in and then you have to figure out when to get out. Now you should be doing that if your time horizon, if this money is really for long-term investing. If you’re going to need some of this money or all this money in the short-term, first of all you shouldn’t be invested to begin with because you can never tell when that correction is going to come and all of a sudden your portfolio is down 15%. Investing requires time. Time is a great healer. Time will lead to the volatility out of a portfolio assuming you’re well-diversified with quality investments and once again the mistake that we see time and time again is people think the stock market is a casino. The stock market is not a casino. There’s no magic formula that tells you when to get in and when to get out. The real key is as Nancy said, is knowing your time horizon, when you’re going to need the money, and how much you’ll need and when you will need it, and to be well diversified with quality investments. And that really leads to what we do at Certified Financial Planner professionals and that’s planning and looks at where you are today, your time horizon, and how conservatively you can invest your money and still have a high probability of not running out of money when you’re 93 years old but you’re doing what virtually everybody does out there until they’ve met with a professional and you’re trying to get the best return that you can without any thought as to how you’re allocated and what your needs are in the way you’re going to need these funds. Now if it sounds like I’m preaching I am, because that’s really what you need to do to be successful investor and unfortunately in fact there’s an article <Inaudible> the Sentinel or the Wall Street Journal, about how many– I think he said age <?> Sentinel, about the retirement crisis that we have in this country. Fewer and fewer people are saving for the future and as generations go on we see it– don’t you see it, Nancy, with clients?

Yes, yes. Judy, my question for you is are you working with somebody?

No.

So first of all I would invite you to take advantage of a complimentary consultation if you wish, which could consist of doing a full financial plan or something as simple as a second opinion on your portfolio.

Okay.

So maybe take a little bit of the questioning out of your allocation on your investments.

And all I would need to bring in all the summaries, all the year ends?

Please. Yeah. I mean most people are getting their quarterly statements now so the most recent statements would be great for second opinion, full financial planning requires a little bit more data gathering but that’s– we offer complimentary consultations to everybody so you can take advantage of coming in and talking about your situation, where you’re at now, where you want to be, and as I have said get a second opinion on your portfolio.

Wonderful. Thank you very much, I appreciate all the information.

Thanks for calling, Judy.

All right, thank you so much, you want Judy’s line, it’s 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. And here’s the radio show, and the complimentary consultation is also the workshop that the Certified Financial Group offers to their new clients and current clients.

We surely do.

So what have we got coming up on that schedule in the workshop category?

We have on November 11 from 9:00 to 11:00, hosted by Gary Avely, health care options in retirement, becoming more and more of an issue.

And November 4?

Oh, I meant to say November 4.

Oh, November 4. Ah.

And I’m a lefty, so–

The fourth, the 11th–

Sometimes I read stuff backwards on the page. The next one, 11/11/2017 also from 9:00 to 11:00, everything you wanted to know about mutual funds, hosted by Gary Avely. On January 6, 2018 Retire with Confidence, hosted by Gary Avely, and then the last one on the books for right now, also hosted by Gary, is March 3rd from 9:00 to 11:00, financial basics for life. If you go to our website, financial group.com, click on the workshops, you can see the dates, the descriptions, and register.

Well the next one in two weeks so today 9:00 to 11:00, Saturday morning at our office in Altamont Springs, this one is a big hit because people are getting that Medicare information, what do I do about Medicare, plan B, C, D, E, F, which is right for me, and–

By the time I retire they’ll be on Z and AA.

<Inaudible> expert on that, so if you want any clarification on that he’s not going to try to sell you into something, he doesn’t sell Medicare supplements, but he is very very knowledgeable about those options. So once again as Nancy says, go to our website, that’s financialgroup.com, financialgroup.com, click on workshops, you can make a reservation right there.

All right, there we go, just like that, if you want to call the show it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. The text machine is up and running as well, 21232. We are planning tomorrow today with the Certified Financial Group. Tell me the three big things you need to know.

Well, welcome back, this is On the Money with the Certified Financial Group, here on News 96.5, WDBO, we are taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. With Joe Bert and Nancy Hecht of the Certified Financial Group, again 844-220-0965, let’s get back to our phone lines before we get to the latest news, weather and traffic which is three and a half minutes away to talk to Afan in Port St. John. Afan, go ahead, you’re on Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Good morning, Afan!

Hi!

Thanks for calling, how can we help you?

Morning! I have a question. Me and my wife, we just had a baby <Inaudible> about yesterday, he just turned one yesterday. So I wanted to know what would be the best options to invest for his future would be and what would be the minimum I can start with?

Well are you talking about for education, for college?

It can be anything, education, like an investment for him, yeah, education would be the best <Inaudible> for him.

What I would look at is the Florida prepaid college program. And that opens up here now and do you know how that works, Afan?

Yes, I work for the University, so–

Okay, cool. All right.

Yep.

So that is the way to guarantee that — no that doesn’t guarantee that he will get into college, but it guarantees that you won’t pay any more than the current rate and it locks down today’s rates and if you could do it for modest amounts of money there are lump sum or a monthly investment plan, and I would look at that as a starting point, as kind of the foundation. And as you probably know you can do a two year plan, four year plans with tuition, with room and board, you can buy the whole enchilada, and you can have your relatives contribute to it as well to keep that fund going and that will consume a good part of most people’s disposable income. What did you want to add, Nancy?

No, it sounded like he had another question. You said education and.

Education that I kind of– I was also thinking on a side, some investments, like besides his education like buy some shares. I don’t know.

Okay, but <Inaudible> I guess an investment account or the benefit of your son, you know uniform transfer of riders happen of the State of Florida is the title, that you can invest and under age 14 anything earned is going to be taxed to you over at age 14 will be taxed to him or you can do 529 accounts and everything that will accumulate in there will be tax free if used for higher education if you pull the money out say part of it out when he’s 16 for a car or something then you would pay taxes on those dollars but you would have had all those years of money accumulating on a non taxable basis.

Okay so can you send me the name one more time–

Uniform Transfer to Minors Act, so that’s an account that’s owned by Mom and Dad and uncle, anybody for the benefit of a kid, or the 529 college savings and then Joe of course mentioned the Florida prepaid. So one thing that you might want to think about 529 or the Uniform Transfer to Minors act if it’s owned by somebody other than you and your wife and your son is eligible for grands of scholarships, anything that’s not owned directly by you is not going to have to be reported on financial statement when it comes for college. So if you have a sibling or parent or somebody that you can use as the custodian for the account.

But if you’re going to do outside investing you want to use mutual funds as opposed to trying to pick individual stocks, individual stocks with a high risk high reward proposition and <Inaudible> most people shouldn’t be picking individual stocks because they don’t have the time or the expertise to really do all the due diligence that’s necessary. And that’s why mutual funds are there and it’s what we recommend to our clients in the most <Inaudible>

Well especially if you’re investing smaller amounts the mutual fund would get you a piece of many, many companies versus one.

Well, Afan, thanks so much for the phone call, if you want Afan’s line it’s 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. We’ve got Ed and Sue coming up right after this. Right here, the news, here on News 96.5, WDBO. Almost forgot what we were going to do in there. News 96.5, WDBO.

You don’t know what I’ve got.

Welcome back, this is the second half of On the Money, Certified Financial Group, 844-220-0965 is the number to chime in, with your question for Joe or Nancy, we are Certified Financial Planning professionals at Certified Financial Group and each and every Saturday they take time out of their busy weekend to come in and answer your questions to let’s not waste it, let’s do it. 844-220-0965, we want to get back to our busy phone lines here because we got a lot of great questions and want to get them answered for you. Let’s start off with Ed in Eustace, Ed go ahead you’re on the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Can you hear me?

Yes, hi Ed, what’s your question?

Hello?

Hi!

We can hear you.

What can we do for you, Ed?

I can’t hear you, can you hear me?

You need to turn your radio off!

Well we’ll call on Ed down there in just a second, let’s put him on hold. And ladies and gentlemen, let this be a lesson to you that you got to turn your radio off when we call on you, otherwise you’ll get a little feedback, that’s all <Inaudible>.

<Inaudible>.

So we’ll get on hold, we’ll take him in a minute, let’s go to Sue in Orlando. Sue, go ahead, you’re on with Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hi Sue!

Thank you for taking my call.

Sure.

I have a quick question. I have a will and had it done in Illinois when I lived up there. And we moved down to Florida. Do I need to have a new will? I was told that I would need to.

Yes. You should get it reviewed and you should get it updated and if it’s more than I would say five years old estate laws have changed but yes, you know the rules for every state are different, and it’s something that you should do. And if you do not have access or know of an estate planning attorney if you want to contact us we’d be happy to refer you to some.

Thank you very much, that answers my question.

You’re quite welcome. Welcome to Florida.

Bye.

Simple enough.

Bye, thanks so much, Sue. David in Orlando, again, if you want one of our phone lines, it’s 844-220-0965. 844- 0965. 844-220-0965. Dave in Orlando, go ahead, you’re on the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Morning Dave.

Good morning.

Hi.

I’ve got like a three part question here, and it’s all to do with individual retirement funds. I currently — I’ve had for years a 401k, and my current employer offers me a 401a with an employee match. They also offer a 457.

It sounds like you work for a government entity, right?

Yes, a government entity I work for. Very good one, by the way. My question is what’s the maximum amount I can put into the fund, and what’s the difference between a 401a and a K?

Well, as you just described, the A is generally offered by governmental entities, and the 401k is by private corporations. The contribution limits often times are the same. Your investment choices sometimes are a little bit more limited in the 401a. The rules on withdrawals are about the same in terms of penalties and so forth. The specific plan may or may not allow loans, you have to check that out, but they operate pretty much the same.

And the 457 is the deferred compensation plan. So you’re deferring some of your compensation now so you can take it sometime in the future.

Right, and I’m currently doing that, and what I’m concerned about is my maximum, as I’ve overheard different programs, and I think I’ve heard on yours a couple weeks back, about a maximum amount I can put in. Now, does the deferred count towards my 401a as my maximum, and I’m coming up on 55 and I’m trying to put away as much as I can for retirement.

The 457, the deferred compensation plan, works separate from the 401 and does not impede you saving the max into the 401.

Okay, so the 401, my max would be as I’m 54 right now, and is — does that include what my employer match is, or is total a year or not?

No. Your own compensation, which is what, $24,000 this year. And it’s going to go up a little bit next year.

It’s going up by — next year $500 on the employee side. So 24,500 is the max.

Well, thank you guys, have a good day and I enjoyed the show. Glad to see you guys got your web — because I work a rotating type shift, I usually catch your show and I’ve seen you missed a couple last month there, not getting them on your website there. I enjoy listening to all your podcasts, so you check your site you’re missing a couple weeks there.

Well, thanks for that info, Dave.

Thanks for telling us, we’ve got to get with our webmaster <Inaudible>.

Well you missed a couple shows cause of the hurricane.

That’s true, yeah, we did.

We missed a couple shows during the hurricane in September.

Yeah.

Yes, no I checked it the other day, they were — every show was up there that you did.

Are you responsible for that?

No.

But there was two weeks in a row where <Inaudible>.

Yeah, exactly.

Over and out, Bob, that cleans up all of our phone lines. 844-220-0965. If you’ve got a question for the panel, 844-220-0965. Text machine is up and running, 21232, <Inaudible> about 160 characters. That’s all we can see on our screen. 21232, and texts to <Inaudible>. Joe, what do you think about Bitcoin investing?

I think it’s very speculative, it’s not really investing. It’s speculation, because it’s — I don’t want to say — it’s unregulated by any government entity, which is kind of the attraction, but.

And it’s also hard to value because of that.

The swings in the value of it are dramatic. It’s a high risk, high reward proposition. I always believe in don’t invest in what you don’t understand, and I don’t want to take the time to try to understand some speculative investments.

Well, and if you’re going to put money in it, you have to put in money that you’re prepared to lose 100% of it, which leans more towards the gambling kind of attitude versus an investing kind of attitude.

I feel my rule of thumb is this something Warren Buffet would consider, and the answer is no. So if it is kind of an investment that would not be used by investors who know how to invest, it generally doesn’t make sense. It’s usually attracted by people that want to speculate. You’re like trying to find that get rich quick, that lottery ticket, if you will, to make up for all the poor savings and investments they haven’t done all their life and find a winner. Bitcoin may or may not be it, but as far as I’m concerned I wouldn’t put any money in it.

Again, you have to — if somebody wants to put dollars in it, I hate to use the term invest in Bitcoin.

Speculated.

Right, you have to say I’m going to commit, I don’t know, whatever your comfort level is, $2,000, and see where it goes. And if it goes away, I can live with it, and if we’re wrong and it happens to over years become worth tens of thousands, then that person made the right bet.

Right, exactly.

But it is a bet.

Exactly.

Alright, well we’ve got a couple of calls now. I want to give out the phone number again, 844-220-0965. Jeff in Orlando is up first. Jeff, you’re on the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hi Jeff.

Hi, good morning. I have a question about a realty question. I am going to do a relocation and I’ve been in my current house for about 10 months now, probably a year by the time I sell it, and I’m wondering how the capital gains taxes would work on that.

Well, you’re going to have to pay gains on it if it’s not your primary residence for two of the last five years under current law, so you’ll have to — it’s not your mortgage, if you paid 200,000 and you sell it for 250, you’ll have to pay gains taxes on $50,000 of the gains. It could be as high as 20% or as low as 0%, depending on what your total income is.

Okay, and if I reinvest that into the next home, does that matter at all?

No.

You haven’t met the two year threshold, that’s the problem. It’s two out of five years to be considered a primary residence.

What you’re thinking of is the old rule where if you took the proceeds from this property and rolled it into a new house, that’s what it used to be before this $250,000 exclusion for a single taxpayer came into play. People used to say just take all the profit, roll it into a new house, have no taxes, and years ago that’s the way it used to be. But today your primary residence is two out of five years. As a single individual you can have profit now over and above what you paid for it of $250,000. A married couple is $0.5M under current law. Of course that’s all subject to change with what’s going on in Congress right now.

Alright, great, thanks guys.

Okay, good luck to you.

Thank you, bye, bye.

Bye Jeff, thanks so much. Get on Jeff’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. Got a question on the text line here for you Joe. Have you heard the recent rumor of the U.S. government wanting to significantly lower the pre-tax 401k —

Yeah, that is a trial balloon, that’s part of the tax proposal that’s in there now. They’re considering it as a way of raising revenue, there was an article yesterday in the Wall Street Journal about that. Who knows if it will make the final cut. I think it’s a huge mistake. <Inaudible>

Yeah, anything done to —

But that’s real though.

Oh, it’s real.

Hold it, it’s not final. <Inaudible>

Not final, but the rumors are true.

I’m not in favor of things that reduce the ability for people to pay for themselves.

Well, in that case I’m going to call my Congressman and say uh-uh.

No. Stop that.

It makes no sense. In fact that article I alluded to earlier said the generation upon generations they’re finding their savings less and less. If you start taking away tax incentives to do that, you make it even worse.

Worse, yeah.

What we hear often from people is that I’m contributing the full contribution.

Or maxing out.

Up to the max that the company does, so as we spoke to Dave, $24,000 is the max, not 4% of your pay.

Whatever the matching is.

Matching is gravy as far as I’m concerned.

Alright, well let’s get back to our phone line, let’s talk to Paul in Deland. Paul, you’re on the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Morning Paul.

Hi Paul.

Good morning guys.

Good morning.

My girlfriend and I bought a house together a few years ago. We just had our wills drawn up last year, and we had a will has been <Inaudible> by the survivorship. So we were both <Inaudible> the way it’s set up now, her daughter gets half the value of that house and my boys — I’ve got three sons, they get the other half, because we have <Inaudible> all the siblings get a quarter, 25%. <Inaudible> normal.

So, it’s less up to your kids to divide the amount.

The way it is now, her daughter gets half the house, and my boys get the other half. I’d have to <Inaudible>.

Well, I mean —

It’s what you agree to.

Yeah.

There’s no right or wrong here.

If you decide that you want — you feel like your boys are going to get 1/3 of 50% and that’s not quite equitable, that’s actually between you and your girlfriend. And if you want to change it so everybody gets 25%, again, you have to decide what’s going to be fair, equitable, comfortable for you and your children. There is no right or wrong answer. I commend you for having succession listed as opposed to just leaving the two of you joint and that’s it, but how you split it up really depends on family relations.

There’s no rights or wrongs here. I’m sure you have provisions in there, what happens if her only child dies, what happens to that one half share that she would get, does that go to your boys, does that go to her family, and what happens if one of your sons isn’t there when both of you are gone?

Do you have grandchildren?

Yes, we do.

Okay, so there’s a term called per stirpes, so it would go down family lines. So God forbid something happened to one of your sons, his portion would be maintained through his direct family line.

But financially there’s no right or wrong in that, it’s really a matter of family dynamics and what you and your girlfriend have decided. If she contributed equally, you contributed equally, you love each other, her family should get her half and your family should get your half. That’s how I would look at it.

Okay, just maybe we’re looking at it too. I had it <Inaudible> this morning <Inaudible> as I’m drinking a cup of coffee I’m thinking about it. When we’re both gone, it doesn’t really matter anymore.

Yeah, you have to have it all spelled out. And, we’re getting ready for Thanksgiving, if everybody’s happy and healthy I think this is a great time to discuss estate planning kind of stuff. So if you’re all getting together for Thanksgiving you can just let them know as part of the conversation between football and food. This is what we’ve done, and just so you know this is how we feel and it’s comfortable now, and it’s all done, it’s in place.

Okay, sounds like a plan, yeah, it sounds like a plan.

Alright Paul, thank you for the call.

Hi Paul, appreciate it, thanks so much. If you want Paul’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. It’s your last chance to get your question answered, so call right now because we’re going to come up against our break and we’ll have our last segment, so call right now if you have a question. 844-220-0965. Or you could text it, we’ll get some of the text questions coming up here in a minute. 21232. Right now it’s time to get the three big things you need to know.

Alright, it is the final segment here of On The Money with the Certified Financial Group, so let’s get right back to our phone lines at 844-220-0965. Talk to Ed in Deland. Ed, go ahead, you’re on with Joe, Bert, and Nancy at Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hi Ed.

Morning Ed.

Good morning, thank you very much for taking my call.

Sure.

We went to the Social Security office a couple weeks ago for our spousal benefit on my side. 72, and my wife just turned 66. We went in and asked if she had any pensions, and yeah, she does, she’s getting a pension from the State of Florida as a teacher. She had been in the Social Security since 1960 until 1988. He said that she would be taxed on the amount that she will be withdrawing from spousal benefit amount. Is that correct?

You’re going — depending on what your income is, yes, that Social Security is taxable.

I understand that, but on her amount that she will be receiving each month, hers would be reduced.

Because she has —

Because of the winfall provisions, right. And if you look up winfall provision, it will explain to you clearly. I don’t have time to go into all of it right now, but it’s provisions for people who have had employment where there was non-Social Security contributions. That’s that little part that your wife falls into for the State of Florida. But look up winfall provisions.

It’s not a win, but you’re a loser in this case. That’s the way it is.

Social Security is a way of offsetting government pensions.

Ed, thanks so much for the call, we appreciate it. Let’s get to Phillip in St. Cloud. Phillip, you’re on with Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Morning Phillip.

Good morning, thank you. My question is I have a lump sum commencement, I’m going to take that out for my IRA. I haven’t earned any money this year other than what I’m going to take out. It’s $39,000, they’re going to tax it at a 20% rate.

Mmm, okay.

My question is when I file taxes with the tax form, am I going to pretty much take a <Inaudible> on that money or am I going to <Inaudible> some of that.

Have you taken the money yet?

No.

Okay, so what you want to do is move it from your corporate plan, roll it over to an IRA. The full 39,000 will go there. Then when you withdraw from the IRA you can con troll how much is taxed from 0% up to 20% if you choose. If money is coming directly from a corporate plan, it’s an automatic 20% withholding. Roll it over to an IRA first, then take your withdrawal.

I see, so <Inaudible> when I took that over into my private financial institution, then I have the control of taking what percentage of tax I want out of there.

Exactly.

<Inaudible> why are they allowing me to do that?

That’s the way the rules are.

Because those are the tax law rules.

If it comes out of a corporate plan, by law, they are required to withhold 20% if they send the check to you. If they send the check to an IRA account, there’s no withholding, and as Nancy said, you can determine what you want, when you want it, and at age 70 and a half you have to start making withdrawals.

Yeah, wow. Really interesting. Well, thank you for your time and thank you for your answer.

Thanks for calling, Phil.

Alright Phillip, thanks so much. Yeah. Depends on where the money’s going to, <Inaudible>. We’re about out at a time out, if you have been hanging on the line you’ll get a private consultation off the air from Joe and Nancy, but real quick before we get out what are the next workshops?

Workshops, two weeks from today? November 4th.

Yeah, November 4th, from 9:00 to 11:00, healthcare options in retirement. November 11th, everything you want to know about mutual funds, also from 9:00 to 11:00. Those are the last two for this year, hosted by Gary Abley. Go to our website, financialgroup.com, click on workshops, and reserve your seat.

Hope to see you there, thank you.

Alright, that’s going to do it this week’s edition. We’ll be back next Saturday at 9:00am. We have been <Inaudible> tomorrow right here on News 965 WDBO.

This is News 965 WDBO where Orlando turns first for breaking news, weather, and traffic, 24

Well, good morning everybody! Welcome to another edition of On The Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5 WDBO. Joe Bert and Denise Kovach are here answering your questions at 844-220-0965. Good morning everyone!

Good morning!

Well, not too bad. How are you today?

Good! Good. Just good.

Well, you know, kind of a rainy, gloomy kind of day it looks like, but it’s good.

Well, you know what gloomy days in October mean.

Tell me.

There’s a cold front — there’s a cool front.

Ah, you got it.

Not in Florida.

Well, well, well — no, no, what I hear is a rumor. Next weekend, we could be lows in the 50s, high in the upper 70s during the day.

Really? So that’s great motorcycle riding weather, so I’m very excited about that and I know you are, too, Denise. I’ll take the gloomy weekend if that means beautiful next week, that’s how I’m —

But Joe, why are we near at 9:07 on a Saturday morning?

Denise and I are here to answer any questions that might be on your mind regarding your personal finances. As we say, we go through life trying some of this, trying some of that, and wake up at 55 years old, look across the breakfast table at Loretta and say, Loretta, you know, we’re going to have to retire one day and where’s the money going to come from? The paychecks will stop, we have Social Security, but how do we continue this wonderful lifestyle that we’ve enjoyed for the past 25 years of marriage? Kids are gone, kids are married, and it’s just you and me, honey!

For the next 30 years.

That’s right, so what are we going to do? How do we turn that savings that have in the IRAs, and 401(k)s, and the stuff that we’ve accumulated into a lifetime of continuing income? That’s what Denise and I do, every day, day in and day out, for our many clients doing it for a fee. But on Saturday morning, we are here absolutely free. We’re here to answer any questions that might be on your mind regarding your personal finances, as it might revolve around questions that you have about stocks, and mutual funds, and bonds, and real estate, and long-term healthcare, and IRAs, 401(k)s, annuities, life insurance, reverse mortgages, all that and more. We are here to take your call. The good news for you, the lines are absolutely wide open. So if you want to pick up the phone — you don’t even have to give us your real name; you can pretend you’re Loretta, or Daphne, or Jack, or Sophia, or whatever it might be. Just kind of, you don’t have to use your real name.

I like Sophia.

Sophia!

Sophia Lorenz.

I love Sophia Lorenz.

Sophia Lorenz. Get me started.

Okay, so we’re here to take those calls, and all you have to do is pick up and dial these magic numbers.

844-220-0965. Very simple: 844-220-0965. And we have the magic of technology in the text form as well, 21232. We ask you to just keep to about 160 characters, that’s all we can see on our screen, so we don’t want your question to get cut off. We know a lot of people give their life story in those text — 160 characters, that’s it, 21232. Denise Kovach is going to kick off today’s conversation: Mistakes or common mistakes with inherited IRA.

Well, yeah. Inherited IRAs are also known as stretch IRAs, and they’re specifically designed for non-spouse beneficiaries; however, on occasion, it would be appropriate for a spouse — okay, if she needed the money prior to being age 59 and a half. However, if inherited IRAs are not set up and funded correctly, there could be irreversible and very costly consequences, and I’m going to talk about a few of them.

So, let’s draw for our listeners that might not be familiar.

Sure.

So, Mom passed away, Dad’s gone. Mom passed and Mom had an IRA, and now she wants to leave the IRA to Junior. That’s an inherited IRA.

That’s an inherited IRA.

Where are the problems?

One of the problems is incorrect account titling, because they must be set up — believe it or not — with a deceased name on the account title.

Ah, so I can’t put Junior’s name on the account? Or I can put Junior here, but I have to have Mom’s name on it, too.

Well, you can’t — some financial institutions will do that, but that causes confusion, too. Okay, because Junior might forget about it being an inherited IRA, make a contribution to it, and I’m going to talk about that.

So you keep it separate <?>.

Exactly.

So, title it in the name of John Doe (Deceased February 1, 2017) IRA for the Benefit of Jane Doe. That’s how it has to be, unfortunately. Ineligible rollovers: You can’t go to the bank, cash out the IRA, get a check, and take it and roll it into an inherited IRA.

Yeah, so people think, oh, I’ve got that 60-day rule. I’m just going to cash it in 60 days and put it into my IRA.

Oh no! You’ll be putting it into your checking account, because it’s considered a distribution.

Not good.

No, not good at all, because all of the funds are going to be considered withdrawn and very taxable. You can’t contribute to it. So, back to the titling.

Right.

If you forget that that’s a beneficiary IRA or an inherited IRA and you contribute to it, well, all of it’s going to be taxable. When you need to take your mandatory distributions, they must begin by December 31st of the year after death. They’re going to be typically based on your life expectancy. That’s if you were the named beneficiary or the trust that was named beneficiary saw through to you. Those are a few things that you really have to look at, and there’s more.

So if you’re not careful, you can blow the whole deal.

Absolutely! And that could be very expensive.

People do it. We see it all the time.

Well, that’s why you need to call us..

You’ve got it!

Yeah!

Alright, Kyle, we’ve got a call here.

<Inaudible> 844-220-0965. If you’ve got a question for the panel, again, 844-220-0965. You can dial us up like Walter in Titusville has this morning. Walter, go ahead. You’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Good morning, Walter.

Hey, how are you?

How are y’all doing this morning?

Good! What’s up?

Listen, I’ve got a quick question on 401(k). I’m still working and I’m collecting a pension right now, and I’m curious if I should — I’ve got my 401(k) maxed out to what the company matches me.

Okay.

But I have extra money coming in from a pension, a previous pension, and I don’t — should I put more money in my 401(k) at work or I also have two mutual fund Roth IRAs through T. Rowe Price.

Okay.

So your question is, you’ve got some extra cash flow that’s just kind of <Inaudible> there, and you want to build up some more. How old are you?

Right, I’m 53.

53, okay, the good news for you, Walter, is you can put $24,000 into your 401(k).

Right.

Right? And you’re only putting what the company is matching which is probably, what, 3% of your income, maybe 5%?

It’s 8% on — 50% on the 8%.

<Background Noise> so the 8% of your income is probably not $24,000.

Oh, no.

Okay, alright.

And then what they do now, they froze our pension previously at work. So what they do is they dump — I think it’s like, I want to say it’s like $4,000 a year in the 401 to cushion the frozen pension portion.

Okay, well you are eligible to put $24,000 per year into your 401(k), and that’s what I would do. That’s the target that I would use. What do you think, Denise?

Well, unless Walter — if you have any debt. Do you have any debt?

Just house payment, that’s it.

Okay, okay, just wanted to make sure there. Definitely, I’d take advantage of putting some more funds into your 401(k), like Joe said. You can contribute up to 24,000, so if you’ve got discretionary income, pop that up, definitely.

So I mean, I was just curious about the Roth IRA. I’ve had them since like ’85, and I do monthly deposits in that, but I mean, you know, not near as much as I probably should be doing.

Well, what’s your — are you married?

Yes.

Okay, what’s your income between you and your wife? Does your wife work outside the home?

No. I’m a little over 100 a year.

Okay. Forget the Roths.

Okay.

You get no tax deduction, okay? And you can use the Roth with the idea that when you put the money in there, you’re going to get it out tax free, right? I mean, that’s why <Background Noise>. There is no guarantee that the rules in the law will not change. You’re laughing! I’ve been through it, Denise has been through it. We’ve seen tax law changes. One day you think you have this, next day the rules have changed and you thought what you had is not going to be the same.

Right.

I’m concerned that somewhere down the road, they’re going to change the rules on Roths. Now, that doesn’t mean that the money coming out will be taxable. But what will happen, I suspect, is they’re going to make it what’s called means testing. So if you’re in a high enough tax bracket, then what you’re after is you want to get the tax deductions. You can either claim tax deductions of $24,000 a year by putting it in your 401(k), and that’s exactly how it is. Now the question is, the allocation on your 401(k). How is the money allocated there, Walter? What are you investing in?

Well, it’s — they have a few funds at work right now. Actually, they’re doing pretty good. I have them written down here. I think it’s turned in like 14%-15% so far this year.

Okay, well you’re —

It’s just a few funds. There’s no stock in the company.

Sure, sure. Well, what you want to look at is if you don’t have the ability to <Inaudible> it into a fund, you have what’s called target-date funds in your plan.

Yes, we do.

That maybe a little bit better approach for you. They’re not as exciting as maybe what you’ve got going on right now in a rising market like we’re having right now, Denise, Right? Everybody’s happy with their market mutual funds.

They’re very, very happy.

But that whirlwind <?> is going to happen, so you may want to consider moving some of your money into the target-date fund, which is geared towards your retirement date.

Oh, okay.

So that’s a little bit more conservative. It’s kind of a set it and forget it. As you approach that date, it becomes more conservative and it avoids having the bottom fall out when you’re ready to retire.

Okay.

Another thing to consider, too, is — Walter, I don’t know if you have any emergency fund. Also, if you’ve got extra money coming in, you might want to establish that if you haven’t already, which is typically — You said your wife stays at home?

Yes.

Okay, so about at a minimum, six months worth of your net expenses.

Oh, okay. Yeah, I don’t have one of those.

You do or do not?

I do not, no.

Well, how much is in your Roths, Walter?

I think right now — I think, I don’t know, there’s a little over 100,000.

Well, there’s your emergency fund. You could always take out from your Roth what you put in without any kind of penalty. I’d go back to putting in the $24,000 in to your 401(k). Next year, as I said, it’s going to go to 24,500. And if you want, you still have time, you can go to HR and say, listen, I want to take out the maximum that I can — It might be your whole paycheck! — between now and the end of the year to get that $24,000 stuffed in there. But you’ll be a happy camper come tax time next year.

Oh, yeah, I wish I could afford that.

Well, if you have money around, use that money that you’re bringing home. If you have money sitting in a checking account or savings account, use that money instead of what you’re going to bring home in your paycheck. It’s the same thing. You’re just taking from one bucket and putting into another, but you’re going to get tax deductions.

Right. What I was doing is I was taking my money that I’m getting from a previous employer. They allow me to take my pension early with — I mean, very, very little penalty — and that’s the money that I was using to put in extra to my 401.

Okay, well, once again: Strive to get the maximum that the law will allow you, to put in $24,000, and you’re well on your way.

Okay.

Alright? Sounds good. Alright, thank you very much.

Thanks for the call.

Yep, thanks so much, Walter. If you would like Walter’s line, it’s 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. You could take, at 53, when does it go from 18,000 and start increasing, at what age?

50.

50, thank you. I was wondering what that was.

There are some benefits of getting older.

And that’s one of them, absolutely!

Got to focus on that.

As you said that, when you said — oh, yeah, when does it go up from 18? 50! Interestingly enough. There you go.

Interesting, Walter said he’s maxing out his 401(k) and that’s a common thing that people think, I’m maxing out because I’m putting in what the company’s matching.

No, I was in that camp, too.

Right, everybody does that — a lot of people do that.

Yeah.

You want to put in what the law will allow you to get that maximum tax deduction, and as I said, go to 24,500 next year.

Yeah, and <Inaudible>.

It’s one of the reasons we’re on the radio, right?

Sure, that’s why we’re here.

844-220-0965, that’s 844-220-0965. Or you could text us, 21232, that’s 21232. We are playing tomorrow —

Today!

— with Joe Bert and Denise Kovach from the Certified Financial Group here on news 96.5 WDBO.

Hello and welcome back, it’s On The Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5 WDBO. Joe Bert and Denise Kovach, our certified planning professionals at Certified Financial Group and they are here to take your phone calls at 844-220-0965. That’s 844-220-0965. We also have our text machine up and running as well, 21232. That’s 21232. Not only do they come here on the radio each and every Saturday morning at 9:00am to answer your QS on WDBO, another service they offer is the workshop.

We’ve got workshops! Yes we do. In fact, the good news is that this coming Thursday, the lovely Denise Kovach who’s sitting right here to my left, and Nancy Hecht, the lovely Nancy Hecht as well will be doing a Social Security Bootcamp: Planning Strategies. There’s a lot of different things you can do with Social Security, and most people make the wrong choice because they just don’t know. So, Thursday evening from 6:00 to 7:30 in our office in Altamonte Springs, Nancy and Denise will be holding a workshop. It is absolutely free, leave your checkbook at home. We’re going to have some light refreshments, and I guarantee you will get a lot out of it because the wrong decision could cost you tens of thousands of dollars. Spend some time, come on by. All you have to do is go to our website. That’s financialgroup.com, financialgroup.com. Click on the menu — if you’re on your mobile app, click on menu and go to workshops, and you can sign up right there. Or you can call our office right now at 407-869-9800, 407-869-9800, and leave a message on the recorder and we’ll be sure to save you a seat. We hold this in our classroom. It’s got to accommodate about 25 people, nice open area, and nobody’s crammed into a small room. We’ve got some food and refreshments and some great information. Once again, that’s this coming Thursday starting at 6:00 to about 7:30, and you better be there if you want to know about Social Security.

You’ll also learn a little bit about the upcoming COLA, or the cost of living adjustment that <Background Noise>

Big news yesterday!

Yeah!

Big news, why don’t you our listeners about that, Denise?

Well, basically, it’s a 2% increase in the benefits for 2018, which is the largest cost of living adjustment since 2012.

How about that.

So, let’s see what they do with Medicare.

The good news is, you’re going to get a bump in your Social Security. The bad news is, you’re going to get a bump in your Medicare Part B premiums and it’s going to almost eat up everything that they’re going to give you on the other side.

But we don’t know that yet.

Well, I know Medicare is going up, because they did raise it on 70% of the people last year because of the rule that if you’re already getting — yadda, yadda, yadda, but you can expect Medicare will go up. You get to keep a little bit of that 2%, but the entire 2%.

Sure.

But, that’s just stuff you’re going to cover in the workshop.

I am! But don’t we have a couple more coming up?

We do have a couple more coming up. Let’s talk about healthcare options in retirement. Gary Abley, CPA, Certified Financial Planner professional, will be holding this. This once again ties into those decisions that you have to make about Medicare. What are all these options? When you get to be near the ages of 65, you start getting inundated with all these Medicare options, which plan is best for you. The good news is that Gary is an expert in that area. He can talk about what Medicare Part A is, Part B, Part C, Part D, Part F. All those choices that you have to make. He’s not going to try to sell you anything. He doesn’t do Medicare supplements on this stuff. He wants to give you some good information. Once again, information on that is on our website. That’s financialgroup.com, financialgroup.com. If you’re on the mobile app, click on the menu, go to workshops, and you can make a reservation right there. Or you can go to your phone and call our phone at 407-869-9800 or 1-800-EXECUTE. If there’s no one at the office, you can leave a message on the recorder. It’s absolutely free and you’ll be glad you went, and I’ll see you there.

844-220-0965, 844-220-0965 is the number to dial us up. It’s easy to just call in right now. We’ll get your phone screen during the latest news, weather, and traffic with Dave Wahl at 96.5 WDBO! 9:35, here at News 96.5 WDBO is On The Money with the Certified Financial Group. Joe Bert and Denise Kovach are here live in the studio taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. Joe, what are you doing here in the studio today?

Any questions that might be on your mind regarding your personal finances. As we say, we go through life, try on some of this, try on some of that, and wake up in our 50s to find out we’re dealing with a collection of financial accidents!

Uh-oh.

So, we’re here as your financial body shop to knock out those dents and creases that you might have in your financial situation, and answer questions that you have about stocks, and bonds, and mutual funds, and real estate, and long-term healthcare, and IRAs, annuities, reverse mortgages, all that is what we are here.

The good news for you, there’s a couple lines open. However, we have Sophia, I see, on line two. Sophia, talk to me —

I was going to say, let me get out the phone number real quick: 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. And the text number is 21232 and we had a texter text in earlier, but the message had a lot of characters in it and we didn’t get the full message, so we invite them to send their text in again or just give us a phone call.

844-220-0965. Nobody fixes the bumpers of a Roth IRA like Joe Bert. Sophia in Sanford, you are up! Sophia, go ahead. You’re in Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hey, yeah, my last name’s Procrastinator.

And your first name is Sophia, I can tell. You like a sweetheart, Sophia.

What’s on your mind?

Here’s what I want to ask you, real quickly. I was the one that called awhile ago. Should’ve came in 20 years ago, I want people to know that, because I didn’t wake up one day — I wake up every day worried. What I was going to ask you was, I have a mutual fund — I’ve had it for, I don’t know, 25 years, 30 years And you’re right, you said a while ago, things are looking good, and my question in my mind is, what do I do with that? I mean, if it’s hot, do I get rid of it, hang on, and the other part is I don’t know if I can tell you what fund it is, I don’t know if it’s half stock, half bond, I don’t know, you know? I don’t know if I’m allowed–

<Inaudible>. Nobody’s going to go through the phone and tell you you shouldn’t say that. What’s the fund?

Fidelity Puritan fund.

Okay.

Mmhmm.

All right.

So Denise, how would you– You’ve got a lot of money —

SPURX.

SPURX.

The symbol. I’m very aware of that fund and it is a moderately allocated fund so anywhere between 50% and 70% of the holdings are going to be invested in equities and the remainder will be invested in fixed income and the like so it’s an allocated or moderately allocated fund already. It’s a highly rated fund so it’s a good fund. It’s actually risk tolerance which is moderate then you’re in the right place. If you are aggressive then maybe you need to consider moving some of that into something a little bit different, it could be more conservative, it’s the opposite. So does that answer your question?

Well my second question is– I should have came in and seen you. It’s not the only fund I have but what I’m saying is I’m 66 and I really don’t– you know, I just want to kick back but I’m saying if I come in and you tell me if it’s high right now, sell it, and then you put me in something that’ll give me income, you know what I’m saying?

Me.

All depends.

Here’s what you want to have done and here’s what we do for our clients, so if <Inaudible> here’s what–

My middle initial’s S, okay?

Well call him Mr. Procrastination, Mr. P.

That’s my name!

Here’s what you want to have done. You really want to have a plan done and that’s what Denise and I and the other certified financial planner professionals at CFG do day in and day out. What you want to know is what you need to do now with the assets that you have. Are you still working?

No.

Okay so your income has stopped for all intents and purposes. Are you collecting Social Security?

No, I screwed up on that last year. I called you once before, I thought it was 60s– No, I did have ’em done, I’m sorry.

That’s okay, that’s fine, and that may be a good thing, if you’re able to not need Social Security you’re letting that benefit grow by 8% per year and now you get another 2% kick with what happened last year, or this year on the cost of living. But anyway, here’s what you want to have done. You want to have somebody look at your situation, and everybody is unique with what you spend, with what your lifestyle is, there’s no rights or wrongs, factor in what your current assets are, what your projected income will be from Social Security and if you’re fortunate enough to have to pension of course we factor that in. Any other sources of income that you might have, you have rental properties, and all that kind of stuff and then is there a gap, is there a delta between what you’re going to be bringing in and what you want to spend? If not then you have a surplus and what you want to do is what we do with that surplus and set aside for the future, to when the cost of living increases. If you have a deficit how are you going to pay for it and where’s that money going to come from and what bucket are you going to take it from? Once we do the planning then we know how conservatively you can invest your savings and investments to kind of a high probability of not running out of money by the time you’re 93, and that’s what planning is all about. We charge a fee for that. Right, Denise?

We do!

And the fee is based on how much time it takes to do that plan.

Which could be considerable.

Or it could be straightforward, but the thing is is we offer you a no obligation visit. You can come on by. We get to know you, you get to know us, we can answer some very basic questions for you, but generally most people want peace of mind. They want to know at the end of the day that they’re going to be all right, and you’re like 99.9% of the folks running around out there trying some of this, trying some of that, listening to people on the radio on Sunday morning and trying to figure it all out. But it’s like going to the doctor for the first time. You don’t know if you’re in great health or if you need to be taking some kind of vitamins or, heaven forbid, you’re terminal. And we don’t pull any punches; we tell you the good and the bad and what you need to do now, so you’re going to be okay. And our job is to make it work, not to send you out the door and say, man, you’re a basket case, is not going to work. Our job is to show you what it’s going to take to make it work, and that might be working longer, might be spending less, it might be going back to work. You know, there’s all kinds of options and there’s all kinds of different investment options that you have that you haven’t even thought of but it’s what’s in our toolbox, and we can show you how to make it work, so I would suggest, Mr. Procrastinator, that you’ve been thinking about this long enough, pick up the phone on Monday morning, give Denise a call and come on in. We’ll give you a cup of coffee, and you can learn all about us and you can learn about the workshops and we’ll put that pain that you might be dealing with right now, put your head on the pillow at night and be able to sleep soundly.

That sounds really good, and Sophia, definitely you haven’t started your Social Security yet, so as you know or may have heard earlier I am hosting with my colleague Nancy this coming Thursday–

Yeah, it sounds like Thursday night. Yeah.

Social Security boot camp, so that I’ll give you some more information about why it might be advantageous for you not to start Social Security <Inaudible>.

There’s no need to wear the wig if you come in the office.

Ha ha ha!

Can I ask you one thing?

Of course.

Hello? Oh yeah I wanted to say when I get off I want you to tell me when that workshop is, but you know the thing is I was 99% of the people, you know, if my tooth hurts, you don’t– you go to the dentist and that’s what — I just never thought– Here’s one thing. You ask me how I’m living? Eating savings. You know, as long as I have it, and it’s not fun, I mean, some of my friends say hello you got a little bit of money, you know, what happens when it’s gone?

Exactly.

Uh huh.

That’s a scary thought.

Exactly.

It’s scary. Every day it’s scary, so I need to come to see you, I should have came 20 years ago so <Inaudible> listening, think about it.

Well it’s never too late and the good news is you now realize you have a toothache that a dentist can fill and help you with so come on by. At least at a minimum come see Denise on Thursday evening at our office in Altamont Springs, and go to our website, that’s financialgroup.com, click on Workshops. You can make your reservation right there and if I’m still hanging around at 6:00 on Thursday I want to meet you. All right?

All right.

So be in, Mr. Procrastinator. Thank you so much for the call. Again, it’s 844-220-0965. Got a text question in here, 21232. Does paying credit cards off and canceling them voluntarily hurt your credit?

That depends. You’re not going to want to — Paying credit cards off and canceling them, it really depends, you need to keep at least one or two or three open with no balances, and pay them off and don’t close the accounts, that’s going to help your credit. But I wouldn’t open an account, pay it off, and cancel it. I don’t know if that’s <Inaudible>

Yeah, there are these algorithms that the credit card companies use and the credit bureaus use in terms of how much credit does she have available to you so the more credit cards you have, that affects it, but the most important thing that affects your score is your payment history.

Sure.

Of all over and above everything, the thing that really affects your credit score is your timely payments so if you’re making timely payments and you’re paying a credit card off on a regular basis, that’ll help you, and if you have too many credit cards, maybe you want to cancel one or two of them.

Exactly. But leave, you know, two or three open, and–

Yes, yes.

Pay ’em off every month.

Yep.

That’ll help.

Yep.

All right. All right, as simple as that! 21232, that’s 21232 for the text question, let’s go to Mary on line one. Mary you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Good morning, Mary!

Hey Mary!

Yes, good morning. So I’m a woman in my 50s and I’ve always worked on my life stage and at this point my husband and I have gotten all three kids through college without loans. We’ve paid off our house <Inaudible>. My situation is though, my mother-in-law who never wanted to work, who’s actually in better health than me, but she’s in her late 70s, she got a divorce in her 40s, never wanted to work, and she got an inheritance and lived off of that, and really it’s gotten to the point where she and her husband are barely getting by. He’s dying of cancer, he’s like 80 and probably in the next year or two unfortunately he will sadly pass. And two years ago apparently she took out her first mortgage. She <Inaudible> paying enough in the family, and I’m kind of trying to understand like okay so she barely ever worked. First of all I’m assuming she would qualify for his Social Security, right, her husband’s?

Correct.

But other than that how do you help look at — Okay, because I don’t think she even has a reverse mortgage. I’m not sure I think she’s really stuck there, or frankly she’s in this house, it’s old, needs all this work, with the hurricane, needed all this help with getting trees and other stuff taken down, I mean, it’s an expense just staying in this place. I’m trying to figure out like how do we figure out — I mean, she’s literally, she’s like runners that run out of money because she just hasn’t done anything and then again doesn’t have any health needs.

Well Mary, <Inaudible> at the house, the reverse mortgage will have to be repaid. Now when she took out that reverse mortgage did she do it in– I mean, is it being paid to her on a monthly basis? Is it a line of credit? If so, does she use it? Does she have access to it still? Do you know?

I don’t know. And those are things <Inaudible> when something happens but she called us this week and said oh we can’t afford the cable anymore and they’re just literally living basic, basic. So I don’t know. So I guess somehow I just kind of feel like when it happens, but I just feel like it’s a money pit having her stay in this place, and we’re going to have to subsidize her for that.

Well what you have to do is get a handle on the reverse mortgage situation. When she took out the reverse mortgage, what Denise alluded to she had three options. One is to get a lump sum, which is probably the worst thing for people to do because they take the money and they blow it. Okay?

Okay.

So the second option is to set up what we call a line of credit which means <Inaudible> as you need it and you need some now, you take it out, and then you shut it off and you take it again out as you need it, and the third thing is you get a monthly check, and we don’t know what choices that she’s made in any case she had some debt on that property because she has withdrawn some money. We don’t know how she’s done it but she’s withdrawn some money, so what you need to do is get your hands on the statement and find out how much she owes on the mortgage and what the house is worth and if there’s any equity. And then you make a decision. Do we sell the house? If you sell the house you pay off the reverse mortgage and you move on down the road with whatever equity she has, or you decide you know, there’s not much equity but what are we going to do? Maybe she should stay in this house, and it’s possible she could refinance the reverse mortgage if she took it out years ago. Perhaps the property is increased in value and now there’s more equity that she can draw from it. So you’ve got to get– first place is to get your hands on the statement, don’t you think?

She needs to wrap her hands around it.

Absolutely.

Yeah, yeah.

And then you make a decision to switch <Inaudible>

Are there other things that she would know? Her husband was in the military so he gets those health benefits or will she get any– now, now, when it qualifies, this is his fourth marriage.

How long has she been married?

They’ve been married for 18 years at least?

Okay.

19?

I am not an expert in this. The good news is we work with an attorney who is an expert in VA benefits and she <Inaudible> to his stuff, particularly if he’s ill and there’s help that she can be getting, financial aid that she can be getting to help him so why don’t you call Denise on Monday morning and she will give you an attorney’s name and we can direct you to her and you can get that ball rolling, because that may be of help to you and to her in this immediate time.

And is there any other resource, and the reason I’m asking is now I’m still working at 50 but frankly I have some significant health issues and ironically she’s in her 70s and she’s healthy as you can be. But I have some genetic things going on so me having her eventually move in with us is probably not practical because I can’t lift anything, I can’t do anything and it’s like so for her living in this house I can’t be — I don’t know.

You can’t be taking care of her, she’d be taking care of you.

Exactly. I mean, it’s just kind of like it’s just <Inaudible> essentially by age 79 she’s going to need help and it’s like having her move in with us it’s like I can’t help <Inaudible> take care of her. So is there any other resources that you can turn to in the community or other things to kind of — I mean, we’re going to have to help support her some way financially but it can totally drown us trying to support somebody who again just hasn’t chosen to work or save all her life.

I hear you, I feel your pain. I’m sure there are community organizations but you kind of fall in that odd situation that you’re not destitute and so what you have to do is use the resources and assets that you have and this is unfortunately a classic case of somebody that went through life and did absolutely no planning. And now you’re facing reality. So it’s a wake up call for you for you to do some planning to see where you are–

But the thing is I’ve done it all my life, I’ve worked all my life, high school, college, my whole life, raising kids, saving money, paying stuff off, and doing whatever and now to be stuck with someone who like did nothing, it’s like but I definitely think it sounds like I could benefit from still meeting with you guys and getting a plan set up for myself.

There you go.

But I guess as part of that can you figure out — are there ways, for example, with part of that financial planning to say, okay, can I be giving her so much money a year and actually <Inaudible> as my dependent, so I’m getting some kind of break for that?

Yes. We factor that into the planning situation if that’s where you are. So and then in fact I just met with a client this week who’s supporting his sister, who is in an assisted living facility, and he’s giving her $500 a month and we showed him the impact and actually it’s $1,000 a month. We showed him the impact of that on his personal financial situation, and once you see what that is now he has to make some tough decisions. She’s eligible for care or moving in with her daughter, but she doesn’t want to do that. She’d rather still get $1,000 a month from her brother. But it’s draining her brother and he didn’t realize how much he’s drowning until he saw it in black and white. And now it’s a wake up call, but that’s what planning is all about. We get into the nitty gritty and show you what the decisions are and that you’re making or going to make what the impact of that is. So give Denise a call, Mary, that’s what we do day in and day out, we plan to help you.

Mary, we are up against it, so we got to let you go, but go ahead and give Mary the phone number, Denise to your number Monday.

All right, that’s going to do it for this segment but if you want to get your question answered there’s still time at 21232 is the text question, 21232. We have been planning tomorrow with Joe Bert and Denise Kovach, on News 96.5, WDBO.

Well it is the final segment of On the Money with the Certified Financial Group and we’re looking at the clock; we got about a minute and a half left. We went a little long in our last segment so one more time– the workshop information so I can come visit you at your office show with Denise Kovach.

Well, Nancy and I are going to be hosting our Social Security boot camp discussing <Inaudible> planning strategies that’s going to be happening this coming Thursday which is the 19th of October at our offices at 6:00, planning to spend about an hour, hour and a half, we’ll have some light refreshments for you. We have another workshop coming up, hosted by Gary Avely, coming up on November 4, from 9:00 until 11:00. That’s in the morning, it’s about health care options in retirement. So Medicare, part A, B, C, D, and so forth and so on, and then one more on the 11th of November, everything you want to know about mutual funds. Again, hosted by Gary Avely, 11/11 from 9:00 until 11:00. In our office!

<Inaudible> 11/11 at 11:11.

I like that.

On our website, that’s financialgroup.com, click on Workshops and you can make your reservation right there.

Good morning Central Florida, this is another edition of On the Money with the Certified Financial Group. Today we have Roger Johnson and Nancy Hecht in the studio. How are you guys this morning.

Doing okay.

Doing great.

Filling in for Joe Bert.

It seems like it’s been half a year since I’ve been here.

Really.

Well, it’s just so much has happened in the last month.

Well, that’s true. We had the hurricane September, and then October. Well, when was the last time you were here.

Well, it was — I don’t know. It’s been ages.

Been a while, alright.

We got pre-empted twice because of the hurricane.

Well, you filled in a lot in the beginning of the year. You did a lot of the running <?> to work in March and April, you were here like every other week.

Oh, whatever.

<Inaudible> you got a break, yeah.

I like talking to the listeners. It’s always a challenge and interesting, because we have no idea what people are going to ask.

Well, that’s the fun part.

Yes it is.

So let’s open up the phone lines. 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. We’ll also open the text lines while we’re at it, 21232, it’s 21232. Alright, since Joe’s not here, Nancy, Roger, who wants to do the honors of saying what can we call you about today.

Well, what are we here for. We’re here to answer your questions about your finances. We’re not debt consolidators, but we’ll talk about saving for retirement, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, IRAs, 401ks, Social Security, DROP programs, annuities, health savings account, reverse mortgages. All those and more, as Joe would say, we will be here to talk to you about. As he also does say, during the week we charge a fee and on weekends we do it for free. Of course during the week, we also do complimentary consultations. So if you have any questions you’d like to call us about, we’d be happy to talk to you over the air about, or if you have some questions you are — a little bit more in-depth conversation, feel free to contact us through financialgroup.com and ask for a complimentary consultation. You’ll get to speak with one of the certified financial planners at Certified Financial Group. We will take your best interest in mind and try to guide you through some of the questions and concerns you have for retirement. We are here, phone lines are open. We even have that text messaging thing.

Yes, text messaging thing. It’s 21232, but you say you can dial these magic numbers, and that’s fun <Inaudible>. I was hoping you would say <Inaudible>. 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Again, the text as well, 21232, that’s 21232. If you do have a text question, we ask you to keep it to 160 characters. That’s all we can see per line on our display here in the studio. If you have something, may have a follow-up, that’s what the phone lines are for. 844-220-0965. Topic of the week here, Nancy, I believe, navigating the three phases of retirement. Or Roger, Roger, okay.

Well, I put some thoughts together on that. We’ve spoken with hundreds of clients over the years, and they prepare for retirement, and they think about, well, what’s my withdrawal strategy. How am I going to pay for retirement. Of course, that’s what we do during our years that we’re working, we’re saving enough. But then we get to that point and we start thinking about, well now we’ve got to take money out of certain aspects of our portfolio and pay for retirement. And really, you think about retirement as maybe three phases: the go-go years, the slow-go years, and maybe the no-go years. What I mean by that is the first few years of retirement, people want to go and do some traveling, spend some money, have fun and knock out their bucket list. Quite often that takes a lot of money, so that’s going to be maybe a higher rate of withdrawal. Then we get a little older, and maybe some health issues, and we tend to stay at home a little bit more and spend less. So that would be maybe the slow-go years.

I like that.

I do like that.

And as we get a little older, we then — you know, we’ve been caring for ourselves in that slow-go period, but then there’s the no-go period we’ll call it where we require assistance from somebody else through our health issues or just unable to take care of <Inaudible> whatever the problem is. We need care from somebody else, and that usually costs money. So, these three phases of retirement, you might think of them as three separate withdrawal strategies, which we talk about with clients. You could think of it as a V-shaped expense. In the early years you’re spending a lot. In the mid years, the slower years you’re maybe not spending as much. But then in the later years, you’re spending a lot mainly for healthcare and services. Just a lot of ways of looking at it, and strategies, and ways that you can take Social Security, how to best take from different accounts, taxable accounts, non-taxable accounts, tax deferred. There’s a — the best strategy based on your income and your separate situation, it’s not an easy answer for everyone. But those are the kind of things that we work with with our clients from dusk to dawn and dawn to dusk.

Hi, thank you very much. I had a question about the recent Equifax breach. The question is if somebody has already frozen all their credit reports and they have taken their Social Security number and blocked it electronically, and they don’t do any online financial work, then is it really necessary for a security monitoring service.

Well, it sounds like you’ve pretty much taken care of everything. If somebody has actually — and I assume that you’ve actually done all of that, it does not seem like it’s necessary to pay for an additional service.

Okay.

Well, there’s an additional worry you have, and I know people close to me that this has happened to, is — and I don’t believe freezing your credit can stop this — is a bad person filing a tax return in your name and applying for a refund if they know you’re going to be getting one, or they think that oh, well that person might make enough money, they might have a — before you file your return, they file one in your place. They receive the — and they claim all sorts of refund, and get the money, and somehow they clear it through whatever methods they clear checks, because it’s going to be made in your name. This is an issue, and it’s not going to affect your credit, but it’s a bigtime hassle. So keeping track of your Social Security number through that — and credit monitoring may or may not even pick that up.

No, it generally does not. I’ve had a couple clients that have been in that situation. And Equifax has been hired to monitor tax returns. That was just —

Oh yeah, well I wouldn’t use Equifax for anything.

No, no, and I think that their credit rating is worthless now. But it sounds to me, Susie, like you’ve covered all the bases yourself. If you want to take advantage of a credit monitoring, there’s a number of them out there like Credit Karma which are free that you can sign up for. But it sounds like you’ve done a good job of protecting yourself.

Okay, thank you.

<Inaudible> and I would still suggest every three or four months, apply for a credit report from each of the three agencies and see what they show up. Those of course once a year are free.

Yeah, the annual free —

Yes, I do those.

Well, good for you, Susie.

You’re very proactive and I think that’s great that you’re doing that.

Because I think that’s just one of the biggest I hear.

Yeah.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Have a great day.

Alright, thank you so much Susie for the phone call. If you want Susie’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Let’s got to Butch in Melbourne. Butch, you’re up next with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hi Butch.

Good morning, how are you guys.

We’re good, how about yourself.

I’m doing fine. I’m driving down 95 right now, but I’ve got you on speaker, so no problem.

Good. Keep it under 100 will you, come on. Okay.

Oh yeah, we’re doing well under that. I have a quick question for you. I’m retired military, retired state worker, have a pretty good retirement fund built up, and I’m still paying on a house. I feel like I could get a little more out of that house payment if I was to pay my house off and invest that amount back in the market. What do you think.

Well, I like the idea of getting your house paid off just for because of the fact that you would like to get it paid off. I mean, there can be arguments that either way, don’t pay your house off because of the cheap money out there, it doesn’t pay to pay your house off. But you’ve done a great job apparently of setting yourself up for a good retirement. How old are you Butch.

68.

Okay, so you’re near retirement sounds like, if not already in retirement.

I took an early retirement. I started <Inaudible>.

Butch, my marker is are you still getting a tax benefit from carrying the mortgage.

No, I am not. That’s not the most important <?> <Inaudible>.

Well then, depending on how much it might cut your emergency fund down, or if it’s a matter of just throwing a couple extra payments at the principal to accelerate it, go right ahead and pay it off.

And if Congress passes a new tax law, we don’t know what the future holds, but it may double the exemption and greatly offset any benefit you would have gotten from a deduction for interest, which apparently you don’t really have.

Yeah, but I mean to save that little extra for yourself versus paying it towards the house.

And sleepability. I like to think about that. Some folks are fine sleeping, going to bed at night in retirement, paying a mortgage. Hey, that’s fine if you feel that way. But if you feel comfortable knowing the home’s paid for and everything, they can’t take that away from you kind of thing, then strive to get that thing paid off as soon as you can without dipping into too much IRAs. You don’t want to pay a lot of taxes taking money out of IRAs or 401ks to pay off your —

That’s what I considered, taking 20, 30 out a year and just pay down <Inaudible> it’s only a 15-year note.

As long as you don’t incur a lot of taxes by taking that lump sum out. I’m not really a big favor of that.

I’m not a fan of paying any more in taxes than you absolutely have to.

Just double up payments until it’s out. Put a five year plan into a three year plan.

Be careful on the road, Butch.

<Inaudible> what kind of prediction you guys got for the taxes getting through this year. You think it’ll make it.

Oh boy.

I hope. I really, really hope.

It looks like they may finally come through with something, but I wouldn’t guarantee it by any means. Watch out for Washington all the time. They may or may not get this thing done. We’re concerned too as well. We’d like to see something.

Stay tuned, as they say. Well, thank you so much for the phone call. We appreciate you calling in on this Saturday morning. If you’d like Butch’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. We’ve got Sally, Rhonda, and Susan, if you would like to be behind them, it’s now the perfect time to get your question in the queue here so we can ask it to Roger Johnson and Nancy Hecht, our certified planning professionals in the Certified Financial Group, 844-220-0965. Now it’s time to get the three big things you need to know.

On a dark desert highway —

Hi, welcome back, this is On the Money with the Certified Financial Group —

— cool wind in my hair —

Here on News 96.5, WDBO. We are four minutes away from the latest news, weather, and traffic with Dave Wall over in the News 96.5 newsroom. Roger Johnson, Nancy Hecht from the Certified Financial Group here taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Got a busy phone line and a busy text line. We’ll get right back to answering some questions here. Talk to Sally in Orlando. Sally, you’re on the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hey Sally, how are you.

Fine, thanks. Good morning.

Thanks for calling.

Thank you, quick question. My dad passed away and left some properties in a trust for my mother. We have found out that the tax rate on that trust is 55% on the income. Is a trust the best way to leave assets in this type of manner.

It depends. I mean, there’s a lot that can be done with titling. A trust is put in place to help you avoid probate. Probate in the state of Florida starts at 3%, plus legal fees and a lot of time, believe me, going through it with my mother-in-law who did nothing. But, through titling, for example, you probably have bank accounts that are in your name alone, or joint with a spouse. If you add a transfer on death, payable on death designation to that. If you add a beneficiary designation to any type of investment account that you have, it will avoid probate. <Inaudible> without having to go through the trust rigmarole that you’re going through right now.

Well, the trust transfer was seamless and <Inaudible> less, but the 55% tax rate hurt in the income on the rental. I guess is there anything prepared in the future for that to change, or is that just the way it’s going to be.

We’ve seen very little from the proposed tax law changes right now. Potentially, it would be really nice. There’s been a lot of talk about getting rid of estate tax completely, which might help reduce some of the taxes that your family is being subjected to right now. But until it’s passed and we get an idea if they’re going to be talking seriously about tax reform, we get an idea of what gets proposed, Sally, we can’t answer that question for you.

One more thing: if the real estate, if there is a different way to transfer real estate like through the probate process in the future, I guess you lose the step-up basis that you gain in the trust. But you wouldn’t be subject to the 55% tax rate forever <?>.

Yeah, you do not lose the step-up in basis, no. You do not. So if you own some property and it was deeded in your name alone, and on the deed you put transfer on death to and named your children, your children would still get that step-up in basis. They would avoid probate, and they would avoid the trust taxes, because there is no trust. It’s just passing by title.

Is the property in a different state.

No, it’s here in Orlando.

A lot of time it’s nice to use an estate — some type of a trust when you have property in different states. But there’s a lot of ways to skin a cat here. It sounds like it’s already been done by your dad.

But going forward for yourselves, if you’re going to keep the property, you might want to look at proper titling without the use of a trust so you can avoid probate. You get succession step-up in basis. You preserve all the nice attributes and then avoid that <Inaudible>

Transfer on death is a nice way to go. Alright, Sally, thanks so much for the phone call. We are up against the time for the latest news, weather, and traffic with Dave Wall right here on News 96.5, WDBO. But if you want to get behind Rhonda, Victor, and Dee, give us a phone call right now, 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Hey, welcome back. This On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5, WDBO. Roger Johnson, Nancy Hecht, taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Text machine’s up and running as well, 21232. That’s 21232. Before we get back to our busy phone lines here, Roger, what can you tell the audience about why they can call you on the radio today.

Well, you can call us about anything financial. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, saving for retirement, those kind of things. That’s what we do during the week and that’s what we’re doing here at the radio. We’ve been doing it for nigh on 20 years, as someone used to say. We love talking to clients and helping them out, figuring out what’s best for them to do. But before we go on, I thought we’d double back on Sally. You may be thinking the estate tax rate of 50, 55, I’m not sure exactly what that is. But if you have a trust and your — I believe your mom is the recipient of that trust, and it’s set up so that it’s a pass-through where any incomes pass through to her, it possibly can be constructed, and maybe it is already constructed so that it’s only at her tax rate. It’s something to look into. I would suggest a professional in the way of an attorney on that. An estate planning attorney would be a great idea. If you need some names or recommendations, feel free to give us a call and we’ll pass on some names to you. Alright, just like that.

Alright, thanks so much Roger. 844-220-0965. Let’s get to Rhonda in Leesburg. Rhonda, thank you for holding on. You’re up next with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hi Rhonda.

Good morning.

What can we do for you.

Thank you so much for taking my call. I just had a couple of quick questions. I’ve been with Credit Karma for about a year, so I know that I can go through them and lock my credit report. But my husband’s never been signed up with Credit Karma or anything, so how would I go about locking his credit report, and how do we block our Social Security numbers. Because The Equifax thing is really scary.

Okay, so all you have to do is Google credit freeze, and each of the credit services will come up. It’s just going to take a couple minutes for him to freeze his credit with each one, and they have to be done individually, but it’s really easy to do.

It’s not that hard to undo it if and when you decide you needed to apply for credit or something, you needed your credit unfrozen, it’s a couple of dollars to do so and a couple of days to do it. It’s not the end of the world. It’s a great way for protecting, and then you’ll have to do it with each of the three credit monitoring services.

As far as blocking your Social Security number, I do not know how to do that. I’m really sorry, I can’t help you.

I think that’s kind of part of the credit freeze, and that’s really the only way I know about it too.

Yeah, Google is also — <Inaudible> Google. Alright, Rhonda, thanks so much for the phone call. If you want Rhonda’s line it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Let’s go to Dee in Orlando. Dee, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Thank you, good morning.

Hi Dee.

I have a question. I’m in my mid-50s and I just sold a home. I have a little money in the bank. I also have 401ks, some stocks. Right now my daughter is in financial need, and I’m wondering if it’s a good time now to maybe liquidate some of my stocks and stuff. Is that a good thing in my position to help her. I don’t know, I’m just a little confused.

Dee, are the stocks held within a retirement account or outside of a retirement account.

Outside.

Do you know what your cost basis is versus the current market value, do you have gains.

I have some gains, yes.

So if you want to help her, and it sounds like you do, and you can add up some gains maybe with some losses so you can reduce the gains a little bit, capital gains rate is generally lower than ordinary income tax rate. The markets are, as many people feel, at an all-time high. So the opportunity to take some gains off the table right now is — I mean, you know where we’re at now. Roger and I were talking, if there’s potentially no tax reform and the markets could dip, and whatever gains that you are looking at right now may be gone. So, if you’re in the situation where you could take advantage of it and help your daughter, then why not do it.

And you also said you sold a house recently and you may have some proceeds from that, are those available in the <Inaudible>

Yeah, they are, but I don’t have a pension. So I was kind of trying to save that fund for <Inaudible>

Well, you brought up the next point I was worried about is that we all have kids that from one time or another would like to borrow monies, would like us to give them money and such. I think to an extent kids know that, and they may take advantage of that. So you’ve got only one chance for you to save for retirement, so you’ve got to really put yourself first on this. So try to help her, sure, but within reason.

I don’t know, I’m just on the fence about that, because I want to help her, but I’m afraid that I’m going to take away from what I have, you know what I mean.

That’s my concern as well.

Well Dee, one thing I could suggest is have somebody do a financial plan for you before you lend the money to your daughter or give the money to your daughter, whatever the case may be, so you know how much you can actually afford to do without.

Right, right. I just don’t want to sell any stocks or anything like that. That’s just <Inaudible> and I don’t want to liquidate any of my assets right now.

Then look for a way to make sure your daughter does not get in financial difficulty again.

I mean, the Bank of Mama’s open right now and may be closing, and maybe should close after this particular help.

Tough love.

Right.

We’ve all been there.

A kid’s job is to test the Bank of Mom and the Bank of Dad.

<Inaudible> have a plan done, then you could use the plan as the edict as opposed to getting into an emotional tug of war with your daughter.

You could make the plan the bad guy. But hey, very admirable you want to help your daughter. That’s a great thing, and hopefully if you do, and you can get her turned around in the right direction, maybe that’s the best thing to do as well.

Alright Dee, thanks so much for the phone call. We appreciate you calling in this morning. If you’d like Dee’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Talk to Victor in Melbourne. Victor, you’re on the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hi Victor.

Hi, good morning. I’m calling from Melbourne. I’m retired, 67 years old. I have a 401k. My house was damaged from the hurricane and now I need a repair. I don’t know if the insurance is to cover all the damage or what to pay from my pocket. My suggestion is is it better taking the money from the 401k for repairing the house, or what price for a small loan <?> that’s just an estimation <?> from FEMA.

Well, you’ve got a lot of moving parts there. It really would involve probably more to sit down and talk to you about all your numbers. If it’s a matter of a few thousand dollars or multi thousands of dollars, and how your assets are shaped, taxable, non taxable. And then what you could do as far as maybe borrowing the money. But it’s all really part of a plan, and I’d say before I had all the facts, I’d really want to know those facts before I gave you advice. But maybe look into borrowing at a low rate, because you’ve got to fix the roof. The roof is a big part of the house. You’ve got to make sure <Background Noise> integrity of the home in place and get it fixed. It’s a given, you’re going to have to fix the roof. How to pay for it is going to be the next question.

If FEMA money is available, I would certainly apply for that. Do whatever is necessary to apply for.

Depending on what your tax bracket is, anything you pull out of your 401k you’re going to have to pay ordinary income tax on.

Yeah.

What about homeowners insurance, Victor. Do you have homeowners insurance, is that going to pay.

Yeah, I have homeowners insurance, but I still wait for the adjuster. I call, they say because this area it rains a lot, it rains every day, and the lady has <Inaudible> for this station <?>. So to save the roof, it has to be dry 24 hours for this station <?> <Inaudible>. So I still wait, but <Inaudible> take deduction <?> from the hurricane. I don’t know if I can afford to <Inaudible> apply for the loan from FEMA.

Well, you’re going to have to crunch the numbers plain and simple. If you pull $30,000, $20,000 out of your 401k or your IRA, and that plus the taxes, is it affordable, is it a wise move. I mean, it’s really just going to be a simple number crunching kind of decision.

It’s up to you, Victor. Thanks so much for the phone call. If you would like Victor’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Let’s go to Bob in Orlando. Bob, you’re on the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hey Bob.

Yeah, hi, good morning. I have a question I think I know the answer to, but back in September of 2016, they were talking — it was before the election, they were talking about interest rates, and somebody from The Fed board said that there’d be another bout — there’d be an interest rate this coming meeting <?>.

Right.

And everybody was saying that you had retired, are at retirement, it’s no time to be in the market. Everybody was advising to get out and get into <Inaudible> municipal bonds. I’ve had a big chunk of mutual funds in Janus and Vanguard. I’ve had them since the early ’90s, right. I was in on that tech sector boom, which I lost in 2001, then 2008 came and took another big hit. It just started coming back, so I said I could see this happening all over again. I’ll be 74, so I said I don’t have another eight years to wait to recover. So they were telling me, the fund managers were telling me that you could slide into a safe haven of 0% government bonds and stuff like that where you won’t lose anything on a crash. So, that was like a snap decision. I made the call <?>, so I wanted to put everything into a safe haven, which I felt was sliding <?> it. So when I called the slider back and I realized that it was a false alarm, there was no interest rates, that nothing happened, they said you actually sold everything. I said <Inaudible> it was a little long, <Inaudible>, they said that, didn’t <Inaudible> slaughtered <?>, we slaughtered them. <Inaudible> there’s no sale done. The next then <?> I’m getting 1099s for the last 26 years of dividends. I was obligated to pay all the taxes. Then to get back in, I’d have to sell the bonds and buy back in. I said you know, this is something that I can’t believe happened. I didn’t intend to do any of this, you could have explained it. So far, the bottom line with the way the market is at a record highs, and I’m out about $250,000 doing what I did. Right now, I’m talking to a local financial advisor, and it seems like I don’t know if it’s a good idea at my age to get involved with people like that. If I gave him all of my money to invest, and there is a crash, I mean he’s still going to make his commissions and I’d be out even more. I’m <Inaudible> just take my money and spend it, <Inaudible>.

Alright, Bob, yeah, so any time that you’re exchanging assets, going from Fund A to Fund B, it is a sale. That should have been clearly explained to you. Us, as certified financial planners that work for a fee, yes, we do get paid fees on the assets that we’re managing, whether they’re going up or whether they’re going down. But I will tell you that in down markets, we have to work significantly harder and be in communication with our clients a lot more than in the up markets. As your balances ebb and flow, so do our incomes. Putting money — I was afraid that you were going to say that the person wanted to put all your money into an annuity, which I would have said absolutely do not do that.

You know, working with an advisor isn’t the worst thing in the world. It’s actually probably the best thing for you to do if you need some advice going forward. I would suggest using a fee-based arrangement so that you’re not sold products with big commissions and such. It sounded like I think I heard you said you had a big number, like a $250,000 gain that you have to deal with, is that correct.

I’m actually down — being on the sidelines right now, I’m down about 250,000. <Inaudible> $1M <?>.

It all depends, and working through the tax implications of whatever transactions went on will be part of your advisor’s help.

I think what you need to do, Bob, is interview a few independent certified financial planners and see who you feel most comfortable with. Please feel free to give us a call.

Yeah, that’s that simple. Do you have the phone number to the Certified Financial Group.

407-869-9800 Monday through Friday from 8:30am until 5:30pm.

407-869-9800. It’s an easy number.

Easy number to remember. Of course, you can always <Inaudible> Certified Financial Group. Alright Bob, thanks so much for the phone call. We are up against the break here, so if you’d like Bob’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. Coming in, the three big things you need to —

1, 2, 3:00, 4:00, Rock, 5, 6, 7:00 —

It is the final segment of On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5, WDBO. We are taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. It is the final segment, so let’s get to our last caller, Kathy in The Villages. Kathy, you’re on with Roger Johnson and Nancy Hecht, Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hi Kathy.

Hi there, good morning.

Good, thanks for hanging on through the break. What can we help you with.

I have a question about the 1031 — is it 1031 or 1039 exchanges.

Probably 1031, is it real estate.

Right. I’m going to be selling a piece of property I have in Claremont and buying a piece of property in The Villages. I was just wondering if it’s a big headache to do a 1031 exchange or is it something that I should be considering doing.

Well, it’s not something you should do yourself. You need to have some legal counsel to help you. I know that you have to have the property identified that you’re going to be buying before you sell the property. Beyond that —

Well, it’s got to be a like to like. If you’re selling an apartment by a residential, there’s certain things you can’t do with a 1031. So, are you familiar with them enough to say this is what you want to do, or are you still in the early stages.

Well, I know a little bit about it. I’ve read about it, I’ve spent a little time. I was thinking about selling it before, and I do remember it has to be like to like. And that there’s an administrator that helps you with it and so forth. I just wanted to know if —

Well, let’s for our listeners, the concept is to not have to pay taxes on the first sale. You get to push the taxes over into the next property and carry forward any gains without having to recognize your taxes when you sell that first piece of property, I think you said in Claremont. You could then buy the like property in The Villages and still keep the tax deferral of any gains you have. That’s the idea there, and it makes sense, and it’s a good thing to really consider. But make sure you do it right, and you’re getting early information from reading about it, calling us. I would talk to a professional. Feel free to give us a call. We have some folks that do 1031s and we’ll get you in the right direction.

Okay, 19th of October is myself and Denise Kovach doing Social Security bootcamp. That’s from 6:00 to 7:30. We’ll serve a light dinner. Healthcare options in retirement, Saturday, November 4th, from 9:00am until 11:00am, hosted by Gary Abeley, light refreshments there. And the third one, everything you want to know about mutual funds, Saturday, November 11th from 9:00 to 11:00, also hosted by Gary Abeley.

Well, good morning everybody. This is On the Money with the Certified Financial Group. The Oracle of Orlando, Joe Bert here in the studio alongside Judy Sanborn. We’re taking your phone calls this morning at 844-220-0965. Good morning everyone.

Good morning.

Good morning.

How are you guys today?

We’re doing great.

Great.

How are you?

Alright, well what can the audience call you about today?

Well, Judy and I are here to take any questions that might be on your mind regarding your personal finances. As we say, people go through life trying some of this, trying some of that, and wake up when they’re 55 years old and realize the paycheck is going to stop in the not-too-distant future and how do we turn our IRA and 401k and maybe the savings they would have into a stream of income so we can continue to enjoy what they say are the golden years. And that’s what we do day in and day out with the certified financial planning professionals of the Certified Financial Group. We answer those kinds of questions for our clients. And Monday through Friday we do it for a fee, but on Saturday morning we do it for free. So, if you have any questions regarding your personal finances, as it might relate to decisions that you have to make about a stock, or bonds, or mutual funds, or real estate, or long-term healthcare, IRAs, annuities, reverse mortgages, all that and more, we are here to take your questions. And the good news for you on this cloudy Saturday morning, on this drizzly Saturday morning, there’s absolutely no one in line. So, pick up the phone and dial these magic numbers.

Oh yes, they are 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. We also have the text machine up and running as well. 21232. That’s 21232. Hope you’re going to stay dry out there today in Central Florida if you’re out and about trying to get your errands done early before all the rain comes. Well, stay tuned right here at News 96.5 WDBO. We’ll keep you updated on the weather, but we’ll also have some great information and we’ll kick it off with today’s topic with Judy Sanborn. Judy, topic today, did you jump the retirement gun? What you might miss when you choose to retire.

Yes, well, I think this is a very appropriate topic for me because I’m retiring at the end of this year.

Oh.

So for 10 years —

So no more radio show for Judy Sanborn?

This may be the last.

No, you can’t —

This might be the last.

It can’t be the last.

Although, I have volunteered to sit in when Joe’s not available.

Gotcha.

I will be around next year part-time. However, I’ve been talking — and all of us talk, of course, about what — how to plan for your retirement. And so last year, I thought to myself you know I should be listening to myself in what I’m telling my clients. Maybe I should start planning for retirement. So, there are a lot of considerations. I think there are some interesting statistics. Between 9,200 to as many as 11,400 people daily will be reaching the age of 65 for the next 16 years.

Baby Boomers.

Baby Boomers. <Inaudible>

And we’re all thinking about retirement as we get closer to those ages. Joe mentioned that we start thinking about looking at what assets we might have accumulated around the age of 55 and some people don’t do that until maybe 60 and all of a sudden they go oh, maybe I don’t want to work —

And some people don’t do it until after they’ve given their notice, and then they try to figure it out. <Inaudible> which is not a good scenario.

No, not a good scenario. Not a good scenario at all. So, I think it’s really important and all of us ask the question of our clients, well what does retirement mean to you and what do you think you’re going to do in retirement. And some people have a whole list of things and some people look at you like what do you mean? What do you mean what am I going to do in retirement? So, I think one of the things that is really important to realize as you start thinking about retirement is retirement is an oxymoron, which means the reality of retirement is we’re all wanting to get away from certain things, and the things we’re trying to get away from are actually the things that make retirement successful.

There you go.

So, what do you think they are?

Well, it’s the interaction with people every day. It’s the ability to be creative and be productive. It’s the ability to have a feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day, and of course the monetary rewards that may come with that. You want to feel that you’re contributing something. So, if you’re not employed or in a for-profit situation that you do the charity stuff.

Yes.

Which many people do.

Yes. And those are —

Did I answer those correctly, by the way? I didn’t <Inaudible>

You did. No, you did.

<Inaudible>

You did a great job because most of us think in terms of retirement do we have enough money to retire. But, we actually don’t think about what our workplace provides for us. We don’t even think about it. For one thing, socialization. Just coming to work and having the opportunity to visit with people, chat with people, sometimes we’re the go-to person. They go to us to ask us to help them solve problems and all of a sudden you’re retired and where are all your friends?

Right.

I’ve had some of my clients say gosh, I thought those people I worked with, they were my friends. I never hear from them. So, — and so I try to say, you might not hear from them, but you have to reach out to them because they’re still in their routine. And it’s not that you’re not their friend. They just don’t have time to really reach out.

Exactly.

So you have to be a lot more proactive at that point.

It’s like with your kids. You know, your kids have their own lives and they’re not going to call you every day or stop in every day. They have their own lives and so you may see them less often. It’s not that they don’t love you anymore, it’s just that they have their own deal going. That’s the way it works.

So, I think it’s important. You need to have goals even in retirement. You have to have routine even in retirement, and there are a lot of increased incidents of alcoholism, depression when people retire because they haven’t thought through those ideas.

And I think that you definitely need to stay physically active.

Yes.

I think that is critical. I mean, we see it with our clients. Some of them are better at it than others. Some of them retired and in fact they look better than when they were working. But, you have to push yourself and that’s the reason that — if you turn into a vegetable —

You’re not going to live very long.

You’re not going to live very long. That’s the sad reality of it.

And the incidents of Alzheimer’s and dementia certainly increases if you’re not active.

Exactly.

And you’re not physically active and mentally active.

Yup, yup, yup.

So, I have a book that I’ve been reading in preparation and it’s called the Couple’s Retirement Puzzle: 10 Must-Have Conversations for Creating an Amazing New Life Together.

How is it?

It’s really interesting because it has little quizzes that you sit down and you do together to see —

With your spouse? Uh-oh.

With your spouse or your partner to see where you are into retirement.

See if you’re going to retire together or go your own way, which oftentimes happens as well.

Exactly.

Okay.

Well, if you have a question for Judy or Joe, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Start today’s conversations on the phone lines. Talk to Dave in Titusville. Dave, go ahead. You’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Good morning, Dave.

Good morning.

Thank you for calling. How can we help you?

Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I’m an avid listener and respect your advice.

Thank you.

I’m in need of quite a bit of money to make repairs on my home and looking for some advice on the best source.

Okay.

I’m going to need probably in the range of $60,000 to $80,000 and that’s about equal to what my net resources are if I were to liquidate 401k or a universal life policy that I have. But I’m not sure I want to do that while the market is good.

Alright. Let’s back up here. You’re still employed?

Yes.

Okay.

And how old are you?

62.

62. And you need about $60,000 to $80,000 to put in your home and you say you have that in the cash value in your universal life policy.

And a combination of 401k and universal life.

Got it, got it, got it.

The universal life is probably about 40,000, but I haven’t looked at it in awhile. But, it’s somewhere north of 40,000.

Okay.

And do you have a family?

My wife and I.

Okay. I would take it from the universal life first.

Do you have a need for the life insurance? <Inaudible> you might look at what potentially that life insurance policy might be for other than obviously the death benefit.

That’s the only reason to have it is for her if I pass.

Okay. I would borrow from the life insurance policy because that’s your own money. The thing that you need to know is that if you should die before you pay back that loan, all that happens is the death benefit is reduced by the amount of the loan that you have on the policy. But basically what you’re doing is you’re taking out of one bucket, which is the universal life policy, and putting it in the equity in your home. So, I think that’s the first place I would go. What do you think?

I agree. I definitely agree that you look to that first.

Great.

And then I would probably look at a home equity loan. Do you have any equity in your home, I hope?

Yes. It’s paid off.

Oh, well there you go.

Oh, that’s a great resource because that can be a tax deduction for you as well.

If you’re able to itemize. I would probably look at the universal life first and then I would back-fill with the home equity loan.

Okay, how about a source for that home equity loan? I belong to a Credit Union. Is that a good source?

That’s a good source. Yep.

Excellent, okay.

We’re reluctant to suggest that you take money out of your 401k because what you’re doing then is you’re jeopardizing your retirement, which is around the corner. But, using the home equity loan forces you to make that payment every month and get that paid off, and basically build that equity back up and keep contributing to your 401k.

Excellent. Very good. Okay, I think I’m on the right track.

Alright, Dave. Good luck.

Thank you.

Thanks for the call.

Thank you all so much.

Have a good day.

You’re welcome.

Alright Dave, thanks so much for the phone call. If you want Dave’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Text machine is up and running as well, 21232. As I look at the clock we’ve got about two minutes until we get to the three big things you need to know, so now is an excellent time to announce some of the workshops coming up with the Certified Financial Group, a great resource you guys have there.

Yes, our next workshop is going to be Thursday, October 19th. It’s in a couple of weeks <Inaudible> see when that was. 6:00 to 7:30 in the evening and the hostesses will be Nancy Hecht and Denise Kavach. And the next one will be Saturday, November 4th from 9:00 to 11:00; healthcare options in retirement. Gary Abley is the host for that one. And there is one that’s next year, so I just point that out because it is When Can You Retire: Know Your Number. It kind of fits in with what we’ve been talking about and you can go online to our website and see when all of these workshops are going to be happening and you can sign up for them online or you can call our office and register.

Alright, just like that. Financialgroup.com. And hop over to their Douglas Avenue office. It’s a great place. I’ve got to come by and visit. I haven’t visited in awhile.

Well, you’ve <Inaudible>.

844-220-0965 is the number to jump in on the conversation, 844-220-0965. We also have the text machine up and running as well, 21232. Just keep it to about 160 characters, that’s all we can see on our screen, 21232. Dave Wall is in the News 96.5 newsroom right now. It’s time to get the three big things you need to know. Welcome back, this is On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5 WDBO. Joe Bert and Judy Sanborn are here in the studio taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Or, your text questions at 21232. They are certified financial planning professionals and they are here on the radio giving out great advice here all morning long until 10:00 here on WDBO. Got a text question at 21232, Judy and Joe. I’m 41 years old, I have a condo that’s paid off, and I do have money to buy another property other than my house that I have now. I’ve always been under — and that’s why we ask you to keep it under 160 characters ladies and gentlemen. That’s all we can see on our screen because 160 character is apparently the average for the text for all the mobile carriers. That counts as one text <Inaudible>.

This individual wants to know maybe buy another condo? What to do?

Buy another house? Buy another property instead of putting it in something? That’s why we ask you to keep it to 160 characters.

Right, because we’ve actually been contemplating what the under might mean.

Yes. Under water? <Inaudible>

But, I think in general there are a lot of other questions that we would ask before we gave any guidance to someone wanting to buy an additional property, especially at 41 years old. Need to know if they’re employed, what other financial resources they might have.

That would be an excellent question to call in with at 844-220-0965. We’ve got a lot of follow-up questions. This is a simple — easier text questions even though it has a long answer. This texter writes in if I want to retire before 65, what happens to my medical insurance? What are my options? That’s a simple, under 160 character text question.

Can you say Obamacare?

You really have to consider that and a lot of people don’t think about that when they decide they’re going to retire. Because, we can take Social Security at age 62, so a lot of people focus on that and that brings up a lot of issues as to whether you want to take Social Security early. But, from a health insurance standpoint, you’ve got to look at the fact that you can’t go on Medicare until 65, so you’re going to have to cover that expense somehow between the time you retire and age 65. And yes, as Joe pointed out the Affordable Care Act is still available. If you’ve been employed, you leave your employment, you can go on COBRA, which is an extension of your employer’s health insurance plan for 18 months. And I think maybe —

<Inaudible> for 36.

Months.

Mm-hmm.

So, you might be able to bridge that gap a little bit. COBRA can be a little bit expensive. As well, it’s definitely going to be more expensive than probably what you’ve been paying. If you —

You have to factor that in.

Absolutely.

Because it can blow up your retirement plan. As we were saying, the toughest cases that you and I and the other certified financial planner professionals at CFG work on are — that’s a mouthful.

Yes it is.

People have come in and made the decision to retire and now they want to do planning. It was like starting out on the journey, and you’re going, and then you pull out the map.

To figure out you’re not headed in the right direction.

Yeah, or you don’t have enough gas in the tank. And those are the toughest cases we work on because you have to tell them, you have to turn around and go back to Go <?> or make some major lifestyle changes. And you want to know that before you pull that trigger because most people as they’re approaching retirement are generally in their prime earning years. You’re getting the maximum income. You’re contributing to your 401k. You have your health insurance taken care of. I can tell you that time and time again I have shown to clients the difference that it makes to work another 12 to 24 months. You don’t see it immediately, but you see it in your out years in your 80s and in your early 90s, the difference that delaying retirement for a couple years makes as opposed to grabbing it now or grabbing your Social Security when you’re 62 and I want it now because I don’t think it’s going to be there. Well, I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about you running out of money.

And when I have younger clients, maybe lat 40s, early 50s that come in and visit and they are thinking a bit ahead, but they’re also wanting to retire early, I talk to them about the fact that their life expectancy potentially is 100.

That’s what I’m planning for.

Yeah.

100.

Yeah. So, if you think even if you retired at 60, you’re going to live on some kind of a fixed income for 40 years. I always tell them that I hate to tell them this, but they’re probably going to work until they’re at least 70 and the closer you get to the ages that you used to think were old, they’re not so old anymore.

That’s correct, that’s correct.

So, we have to be realistic about our potential for living a long life and being able to comfortably have money to live a lifestyle that we would like to live.

Yeah, I’m planning to retire at 62, but expecting to work to 65 because that’s me.

There you go.

There you go.

Alright, 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965 is the number to call in and ask a question on the phone lines. If you want to ask a question on the text line just like we’ve been answering in this last segment, 21232. That’s 21232. Right now it’s time to get the latest news, weather, and traffic with Dave Wall on the news <Lost Signal> it’s now time for the second half of On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5 WDBO. We’ve got Judy Sanborn, Joe Bert the Oracle of Orlando, here in the studio taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Joe, how did we come up with the Oracle of Orlando for you?

Well —

Do you remember that?

Well, I can tell you. There was a listener — hope he’s still a listener — I believe the name was Anthony from Apopka.

He remembers the caller’s name. I’m impressed.

He called in periodically.

Oh, okay.

And he called in all the time to speak to the Oracle of Orlando. And it just kind of stuck. And so I appreciated that and we have since trademarked it. And it’s now — if you Google Oracle of Orlando, you will unfortunately find me.

Anthony in Apopka.

<Inaudible> speak to the Oracle of Orlando about retirement.

Anthony, once again, I appreciate the moniker and we’ve trademarked it and it’s now registered in the US patent office. In fact, I don’t know if <Inaudible> the story, when we did that we got some pushback from <Inaudible> I remember that.

Oh no, I remember that. That was awhile ago.

I think more of Warren Buffett when I think of that.

But, he’s the Oracle of Omaha.

I know he is.

<Inaudible> but Joe Bert is the Oracle of Orlando. Known as the Triple O.

Well Oracle, what can we call you about today for the audience that may be joining for the first time.

Well, Judy and I are here to take any questions that you might have regarding your personal finances. As we say, Monday through Friday we do this for a fee, but on Saturday mornings we do it for free. And unfortunately people approach those retirement years as Judy has talked about in our earlier segment and don’t have any plans. They really don’t know what they’re going to do with their lives and how to turn maybe those savings and investments that they’ve accumulated The savings and investments that they’ve accumulated in their IRAs or 401ks into a stream of income to supplement their Social Security, and how long will that money last, and what do they need to do now so they don’t look back five or ten years from and say gee, I wish I had known that. Or gee, I’m sorry I did that. And those are the toughest cases that we work on. And that’s what financial planning is all about. We charge a fee for those services because we’re not there to sell you something. We’re not trying to sell you another life insurance policy or an annuity or whatever it might be. We’re here to guide you along the way and to remove that cloud that might be hanging over your head. Or job is to give you financial peace of mind so when you put your head on the pillow at night, you know that you’re going to be okay if you do this, and this, and that. Now we can’t guarantee that, but at least we can show you the impact of what’s going on and what decision that you need to make because it’ll give you a high probability of getting there. Then of course when we do the planning, we do what we call stress test it. <Inaudible> looks at stress testing <Inaudible> looking at the probability of all of this happening, and we want to be sure that there’s a high probability of you reaching financial success. So that’s what we do as financial planners, certified financial planner professionals, and as I said we charge a fee for that. But we’re here now absolutely free. So pick up the phone and dial these numbers.

844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. You can also text us a question, 21232. We self-employed we’ve got a couple of text questions in here.

Yes, and the top one is kind of relevant to some of what Joe just said.

Yeah, well you want to talk about that <Inaudible> okay. I am 28 years old and currently contributing 15% to my 401k. How much should I increase to retire at 65?

Well first of all, I commend this young person at 28 years old to be looking and contributing at his 401k or her 401k. And thinking ahead to age 65, because I can remember when I was in my 20s, I thought if you were 65 you were probably dying, right?

Well <Inaudible> now we’ll talk about that age <Inaudible> psychological <Inaudible>. Let’s get this question in —

But I think if you’re contributing 15%, that’s pretty significant. And we’ll make an assumption that some portion of that is being matched by this person’s employer. So I’m not sure that you necessarily have to increase. It would be difficult off of the top of our heads to tell you how much you have to save in order to be able to retire at 65, so that’s something we encourage you to contact us. We’re happy to give you some guidance in that area and perhaps look at your number. And you know what, we have a workshop that’s What’s Your Number. So you could come in and just attend the workshop. You can go online to our website, financialgroup.com, and look at that. And at 28, I would think perhaps you would look at maybe owning your own home. There’s some other things that you can do financially that will help you along the way to your retirement goal.

There’s a lot of variables that go into answering that question, because — what’s your lifestyle? And between 28 and 65, got 37 years.

I want to have three Maseratis.

<Inaudible> well you have clients that might like to do that. They have to factor all of that stuff in. But as Judy said, this person is to be commended that number one, they’re using their 401k and they’re putting in 15%. I can tell you if that they continue to do that they will be in very, very small percentage of people that retire with some security. Because unfortunately most people don’t think about retirement until they’re in their 40s and sometimes their 50s, and sometimes their 60s. So this person has a great asset, which is time. Time is a tremendous asset. The problem is we don’t appreciate it until it’s gone. It’s like everything in life, you know. We don’t enjoy it until it’s gone <Inaudible>. That’s the way it is. And as I was saying, here’s what I think is going on right now, why many people are retiring with difficult situations, is because they have not seen anybody — they haven’t seen their parents or perhaps their grandparents struggle in retirement. I’m talking about the people that are in their 60s, and maybe in their 70s. They hadn’t seen their parents <Inaudible> because their parents and grandparents did not have the social, the economic environment that we’re living in today. <Inaudible> they retired, many of them worked for the same company for 30 years, had a pension, had a house paid for, didn’t have to use college expenses, didn’t have the big weddings, didn’t take the big trips. And they were frugal, and they went through the Depression. So they saved and they understood. So these people that are retiring today, my Baby Boom generation is in for a rude awakening. Because they had not seen what can happen. Now their kids, if this person — perhaps they’re seeing their mother or father struggle and said my gosh I don’t want that happen to me. Or seeing younger people in their office today because my generation, the Baby Boomers had screwed it up.

Yeah. Joe, absolutely.

Really?

You see that, you see that it — with some of the younger employees we have here at the radio station.

Yep.

They’re <Inaudible> I don’t know, I want to make sure I’ve got saving away — I mean savings accounts are going to have no interest rates. I go yeah you’re right, it’s amazing how well versed and wanting to be informed in those situations.

Yes, yes. Thank gosh.

But the Baby Boomers — I don’t know the statistic, I was trying to see if I had it. But the majority I would say — 70% maybe of people who are retiring really don’t have the financial resources to retire and live a lifestyle that they would want to live.

Yes, yes. Then the important thing is when we do planning we show them if you continue on this lifestyle, you’re going to be eating food <?> tacos when you’re 78 years old.

Yeah, <Inaudible>.

You need to know that when you’re 62 or 63 so you can scale back down. And they don’t want to do that, right? I mean, I shouldn’t say that, but many <Inaudible> it’s hard to make a lifestyle adjustment. Just like dieting. I mean you’ve got to understand — it’s like going to the doctor for the very first time. You know you’re not well and you don’t want <Inaudible> but if you don’t go to the doctor and have that doctor prescribe something for you, you don’t <Inaudible>.

Yeah, no I’m done with the sloppy taco <Inaudible>. That was my college days and I’m gone — no, no, no, no, no.

And I actually have had to recently recommend to a client that they go back to work, and that is really a discouraging thing for somebody to hear.

Part time, or —

You’re going to be better off if you go back to work. Yeah, part time.

I say this now in my early 30s, but I’m always somebody who just has to have a part-time job. Just something to do. So I’ll take — again, I’m sure you have people that go no I want to plan but I also just — I’ll probably work 10 hours as week.

Absolutely <Inaudible>

Just something to do.

Yep, yep.

And we encourage that.

I have a successful business executive CEO, made a lot of money, and when he retired, you know what he wanted to do? Go to Disney and drive the tram.

Hey. You know I’ve always said I was going to retire and just be a greeter at Disney, that’s what I was going to do. 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965 is the number to jump in on the conversation if you have a question for Judy or Joe. Kay in Leesburg has a question. Kay, go ahead. You’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Good morning, Kay.

Hi. I have a question about US savings bonds.

Okay.

Probably a <Inaudible>.

Okay.

I have a mother who died and had a US savings bond in her name. I believe it’s and/or my sister’s name, and both of them have since died. I have possession of them. Is there anything you can do to tell me what to do with them? There’s probably only $200 or $300 worth of them.

See, the problem —

Well I think you can go to the <Inaudible>

The problem is this is a probate asset. I mean we’ve got a problem here.

But it’s small.

Yeah, it’s small, sure <Inaudible>

Well there was no — well my mother had a will but that is over and done. My sister died without a will and technically they were then <Inaudible> my sister’s. And so I don’t know what to do with them.

Yeah.

I do have a copy of their death certificates.

I don’t know how you transfer that.

Well I think the first thing is they are as Joe indicated a probatable asset, meaning because there’s not a will you have to file with the probate court. But there is an abbreviated way of doing that when it’s a small amount of money. So I would encourage you to perhaps contact an estate planning attorney.

But you know the fee to do that is going to be more than the one she’s going to get the $200 from, and —

Possibly.

Yeah.

But you can also go directly to the probate office in the courthouse and they may have a form that you’re going to be able to fill out. And then you might go online because there is a website for the US savings bonds. You may be able to ask that question and get an answer as to what is required. There obviously the death certificate and where you might send it to start the process. But if you’re talking about that much money, even if —

<Inaudible> $300.

Alright, but you’re going to have to pay taxes the gain on that. So by the time you’re done paying taxes and running around, I would just <Inaudible>.

Yeah <Inaudible> I do have other US savings bonds, some of them are — there’s only two of them that are technically matured.

They should be paying interest <Inaudible> 30 years is my understanding.

That’s right, that’s right.

Would I cash in the 1% over the 4% even though the 4% might be matured quicker?

Well do you need the money?

No.

Okay. Well think of it as an emergency fund. If you don’t need the money have it sit it there, because when you do cash it in you’ll have to pay taxes on whatever gain that you have on it. So if you don’t need the money or if you don’t have a better place to invest it with a higher rate of return, then I would leave it where it is and ride it out to maturity. 1% is about what you’ll get in a savings account today or a CD. So you can think of it kind of as your emergency money, if you will.

Okay. Is it better to use them over like an annuity or a — which one would I use first, those, or would I use some of my annuity money if I need that?

Well, you’re going to pay less taxes — well first of all, the annuity should be paying more than 1%. Secondly, when cash in the savings bond you’ll only pay taxes on the gain, whereas any money that you take out of the annuity up until your cost basis can be fully taxable to you. So I would probably use the savings bonds first.

Oh, very good. That was very helpful.

Alright.

Good.

Thank you <Inaudible>.

Good luck with that $200, $300 savings bond. That’s a — yeah, that’s a shame.

Okay.

But she has to be able to get it in her name and cash it in, but unfortunate it’s probatable. And I want to clear up something, she said she didn’t have a will. Well a will doesn’t avoid probate, a will is really what tells the probate judge what to do with your assets so that would go through probate anyway. But it was be an abbreviate probate.

Right <Inaudible> there’s no will. <Inaudible>. I’m not the expert.

Alright, Kay. Thanks so much for joining us here on the radio show today. If you would like a line, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. We have been planning tomorrow —

Today.

With the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO. Time to get the three big things you need to know.

Welcome back, it is the final segment of On the Money with the Certified Financial Group, Joe Berg, Judy Sandborn here live in the studio, taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. And the text machine is up and running as well, 21232. Before we got to the three big things, we got a caller, I believe she was from Leesburg, Kay, about savings bonds, and you actually haven’t answered <Inaudible> we didn’t have <Inaudible>.

There’s one thing we hate to do is not have an answer.

Oh no.

<Inaudible> research team this morning has found the answer.

Yeah, Joe Berg and his phone.

With the help of <Inaudible>

Got right on the computer and started digging through his — now he does bring in binders and notebooks here, he has plenty of resources but he <Inaudible>.

You can beat an iPhone. Here’s what I suggest you do, Kay. Google this phrase: How do I transfer savings bonds? And up will pot an answer for you that you have to file form FS-5336 and sign the form in the present of a certifying official as explained on the form, pack up the bond, and send it off to US Treasury along with proof of death. That will get you started. So first thing I want you to do is go to Google, how do I transfer a savings bond, and your answer will be found right there. <Inaudible> saved you a trip down to the courthouse.

<Inaudible> had to be something relatively easy.

There you go, there we go.

Everything else is easy today, why can’t that be?

That’s right.

A couple of texts in here at 21232. First one: I’m getting ready to retire, I have three properties including my home that are paid off. I want to liquidate, what’s the best way not to pay a huge tax?

That’s a really hard question without more information. The text questions are a little bit difficult because we don’t have the interaction with the person who’s asking.

These are what we call phone call questions at 844-220-0965, even though we are running out of time.

But quickly I think the person has to look at what kind of gain they have in these investment properties because whatever they sell they’re going to owe capital gain taxes on that gain. So if you’re trying to minimize taxes then obviously you wouldn’t sell them all in the same year. You would spread that out and you would have to look at your other tax liabilities and see how much you’re going to be adding to your tax liability that year.

A way to avoid taxes is to do what’s called a 1031 exchange which might be — but then this person wants to get out of the rental business. 1031 exchange simply allows you to defer the taxes by buying another lifetime property, another investment property. Doesn’t have to be an apartment if you’re selling an apartment. It just has to be investment property. That’s one option. Option two is they could put it into a charitable trust. A charitable trust will take that property, sell the property, avoid all of the taxes, and turn it into a lifetime stream of income for you and/or your beneficiaries. So it’s a way to avoid taxes 100% and get income. So depending on the situation, there are some alternatives, but without know the details, it’s hard to give you specifics.

<Inaudible> ideas.

Thank you.

Another quick text in here. I’m retired with 200,000 in a money market account in 0.3% interest. 200,000+ into the 401k, owes 125,000 on the mortgage. Is at 4.2%, so the question is should I pay <Inaudible> or is there — invest to make enough money to cover payments and make money? That was a text question, and <Inaudible> — I mean he used his characters very well, <Inaudible>.

He did, right, whoever <Inaudible>

Or she, yes. Or she, yes.

Alright. Well I think first of all the consideration would be if you pay off your home, if you’re getting a tax deduction for the interest on your home and that’s beneficial to you, then you might not want to pay off your home. Depends on how old you are and how close to retirement you are. And 200,000 in a money market account, I think you’d need to look at is that money that you’re going to need in the short-term or is part of that money perhaps you could invest to your comfort level and something that’s going to pay you more than 3/10 of 1%. 401k, I encourage you to keep doing that.

Here’s what I want that person to do is they pay off that mortgage, is to take that mortgage payment and reinvest it every month to rebuild up that nest egg. So you’re killing the 4.2% mortgage and sacrificing the 1% you’re getting the savings account, it’s not a bad trade-off. But I don’t want to give up the liquidity. So if you have the ability to make that mortgage payment, continue to make that mortgage payment, dollar cost average into a mutual fund and over time you’ll be in great shape.

Alright.

What do you think?

I think that’s a good alternative.

Alright, there you go.

Alright <Inaudible>.

More information.

<Inaudible> the Certified Financial Group.

Financialgroup.com, our upcoming workshops. You can find out all you want about there, you can see our smiling faces and make an appointment if you like. <Inaudible> see you in the office.

Just go by and say hi, they’re great people. Everybody there is amazing. Alright, that’s going to do it for this week’s edition of On the Money, we’ll be back here next Saturday, 9:00am with the oracle of Orlando, Joe Berg and another great member of the certified financial planner, the Certified Financial Group. Stay tuned for the latest news, weather, and traffic right now on News 965

Well hello everybody and welcome to another edition of On the Money with the Certified Financial Group. We’ve got Joe and Aaron Bert here live in the studio taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. That’s 844-220-0965. Good morning, gentlemen.

Good morning.

It seems like a while since we’ve done this.

Been a couple of weeks.

We’ve got the hurricane and I’ve been cleaning up my house from Irma.

Yeah.

How did you guys do in the storm?

We’re here.

Yeah.

Alright.

No property damage.

<Inaudible> everybody else, a lot of inconvenience, but fortunately no life lost, no limbs lost — well, I shouldn’t say that. We lost a lot of limbs, but no human limbs.

<Inaudible> a lot of limbs. Tree limbs.

<Inaudible> tree limbs, and some aggravation but, —

Nothing like —

Perseverance and patience and a bunch of good people, we muddled through.

Alright.

Yeah, no. That’s good to hear. I don’t know how long you guys didn’t have power, but we were out here for a week at the radio station. I stayed here in the generator powered one studio and then I didn’t get power back until Friday night.

Hopefully — I know you guys didn’t have power at the office for —

I knew everything I ever wanted to know about generators. I became a generator expert. Thank heavens we had one, kept the critical systems up and running; phones and computer systems, and we were able to service our clients all week long. So, we’re glad that’s over.

Well, let’s get back to business here. What can the audience call you about today?

Once again, Aaron and I are here to take any questions that might be on your mind regarding your personal finances. As we say, we go through life trying some of this, trying some of that, and wake up at age 55, look at Irma across the kitchen table —

Oh, Irma <Inaudible>

Just popped in my brain. Look at Irma across the kitchen table and say, well, honey, what are we going to do now? The paycheck is going to stop in a few years and what are we going to live on besides Social Security? And that’s what financial planning, retirement planning is all about. It’s what we do day in and day out for a fee at Certified Financial Group. We help people solve those dilemmas, those questions, how to prepare, and what you need to do so you don’t look back 5 or 10 years from now and say gee, I wish I’d have known, or man, I’m sorry I did that. So, we’re here to answer the questions that might be on your mind regarding any decisions you’re trying to make regarding your IRA, regarding your 401k, regarding mutual funds, regarding life insurance, and reverse mortgages, and annuities, and all that stuff and more. As we say on Monday through Friday we do it for a fee, but on Saturday morning we are absolutely free. So, if you have any questions about any of those topics or anything else I might have not mentioned, the good news for you is the lines are absolutely wide open. So, you can call in, pretend your Daphne, or Jack, or Loretta, or whatever you want to be —

Irma <Inaudible> Maria —

You can use your real name. Just pretend you’re somebody else. We’ll be glad to take your call and you can dial these numbers as well as text us. And those numbers are:

844-220-0965. That’s 844-220-0965. Text machine is also up and running as well, 21232. That’s 21232. Just keep it to about 160 characters, that’s all we can see on our screen here. Just wanted to make sure we get all the details. 21232. Alright, today’s topic, a guide to survivor the Equifax breach.

Yeah, I don’t know if — well, this is something I was — in the news recently, but unfortunately it hit right during the storm and a lot of people, especially here in Central Florida, may have missed the news <Inaudible> cross the wire about what happened with Equifax. Equifax is one of the three major credit reporting bureaus. So, when you go into Home Depot or go into your furniture store, or even just apply for a Mastercard online, they go and they check your credit. And they check it against the data that’s held either at Equifax, or TransUnion, or — I’m missing one. What’s the other one? <Inaudible> anyway, there’s three major ones. So, they check your data against what’s held at them. And those are the companies also that provide your credit score and your credit report. And so basically they have a lot of sensitive information about everybody for the most part. I mean, your Social Security number, your account numbers, your date of birth, everything basically financial about you. And unfortunately, their systems at Equifax specifically were compromised. I guess it started several months ago and the breach was just discovered, again, a couple weeks ago when the hurricane had been hitting. So, Equifax has set up a website where you can go online and check to see if your data has been compromised. But, there are some steps that you ought to be taking to secure your personal financial stuff and we can get to that through the show, but I guess we have a call right now, so.

It’s come to me. It’s Experian.

Experian, there you go. So, Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. There you go.

Alright, so we’ll get some more information on that coming up. But, if you do want to join the phone lines, it’s 844-220-0965. And Michelle in Orlando —

<Inaudible> we do have this on our website, the information we’re going to be covering today. So, if for some reason you can’t hold on, you can go to our website, financialgroup.com under This Week’s Must Read. So.

Alright.

Right in the right hand column. Financialgroup.com, This Week’s Must Read, everything you need to know about the Equifax breach.

Perfect. Alright, Michelle in Orlando. Michelle, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Good morning, Michelle.

Morning.

Good morning.

How can we help you?

I have a 401k Roth and I wanted to know should I get an IRA as well.

You have a 401k Roth. Should you get an IRA as well? Well, that depends. That depends. You’re looking for a deductible IRA or a Roth IRA?

I’m not sure.

Okay.

I don’t know the difference.

Okay, first of all, are you with your — how much are you putting into your 401k Roth at work?

The maximum. I think it’s like 15%.

Okay, 15 — well, it’s not a percentage anymore. It’s now a dollar amount. So, if you’re under the age of 50 — if you’re under the age of 50, the maximum you can put in is 18,000. If you’re over 50, it’s 24,000. How old are you?

Yes.

You’re —

I’m 58 — I’ll be 54.

Are you putting —

So yeah, I’m putting the maximum —

Are you putting —

<Inaudible> you’re putting the 24,000 in. Now the next question is can you do a Roth on top of that? And that’s a function of your income.

Okay.

So take <Inaudible>

She’s doing a traditional —

She’s doing a Roth 401k.

Roth 401k.

Hold on.

The question is can she do a Roth on top of a —

Or a deductible.

Right.

Well, that really depends on your — are you married, Michelle?

No.

Okay.

Well, what is your income?

Over — about 180.

180, let’s see here.

Yeah, you are not going to be able to do —

Yes.

— a Roth IRA outside of your 401k. Now, what you can do if you really want to, do you have an IRA — any IRAs at all outside of —

No.

Okay, you have nothing. So, you can do what’s called a non-deductible IRA. So a non-deductible IRA is a traditional IRA that you put in — you can put in your $6,000 and basically you don’t get a tax deduction for that. But then after you put the money into the non-deductible IRA you can do what’s called a Roth conversion which is where you take that deductible IRA and — non-deductible IRA and convert it into a Roth. But you know, I would caution you. With that income level that you’re at with your plan at work, you ought to strongly consider doing the traditional 401k versus the Roth 401k at work just because of the tax deduction that you’re giving up.

Okay.

Why did you choose the Roth, Michelle? Can we ask?

I have no idea. I don’t know. I just picked one.

Okay, I mean as a single tax payer at that income level, you’re in the 28% tax bracket, so you’re giving up a significant tax break in order to be contributing into the Roth.

Especially at $24,000.

You’re giving up about 6,000 or 7,000 — you’re paying about $6,000 or $7,000 more a year in taxes than what you need to because you’re not using the deductible side of your 401k. So, as Aaron said, I would change your contributions going forward to a deductible 401k as opposed to the Roth to get that tax deduction.

<Inaudible>

Yeah.

Deductible 401k and then it’s going to be traditional. So, I’ll just call the employer and just switch it out.

Yes, tell them you want to put your money on a pre-tax basis because you’re giving up a substantial amount in tax deductions.

Perfect.

Okay.

I’ll do that on Monday. Thank you.

Oh good, you’re welcome, Michelle. Thank you for the call.

Okay. Thanks.

Mm-hmm.

Alright, if you want Michelle’s line, it’s 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. Or you can text us, 21232. We were talking about the Equifax breach before we went to Maria. There was a caller that just called in there and asked who oversees Equifax and all these credit reporting companies?

Unfortunately, no one.

Yeah, they’re private companies.

Well, they’re public companies.

Public companies.

Publicly traded companies.

Not by the government.

But they’re not regulated and so we entrust them with all this data to do a good job and unfortunately they got hacked just like Bed, Bath & Beyond and Target, and — <Inaudible>

It seems like all of them have been <Inaudible>

This was even a little bit worse though because —

This is terrible.

Well, this was a little bit more personal.

Yeah, well they stole your credit card number, so you could basically just get a new account. But this is all of your stuff.

All of your personal stuff; your driver’s license information, where you were born, your birth date, where you live.

Well that’s all the stuff that Equifax holds. But I’m not sure they — and they haven’t come out and said that that’s all the information that they’ve taken, but that’s the potential there which is why it’s extremely important that people take some steps in order to protect themselves. Equifax has set up a website and I was just trying to look for it where you can go and look to see if you were affected. But I’ve actually heard some conflicting news about whether or not that it’s actually accurate. So, I would air on the side of caution and assume that you were included in this Equifax breach.

Yes.

So, take the appropriate steps in order to protect your financial data, personal financial stuff.

And once again, everything you need to know about this is on our website at financialgroup.com. Click on This Week’s Must Read and you’ll pull up the article and all the appropriate links to protect you on this because it is a — and the problem with this, Aaron, is that this — somebody has all this — assuming they have all this personal information on you; they know where you were born, they know your birth date, they know your driver’s license number, they know your credit history, where you bank, what you’re — they know everything about you. And this stuff could linger out there for years and then all of a sudden you get this inquiry that appears to be legitimate. You forgot about this Equifax breach in four, five years from now, and all of a sudden you’ve been sucked into some scam. Somebody planted some malware on your computer because you went online and answered some — what you thought were legitimate questions from what you thought was a legitimate website, and now you’re in a pickle.

Right.

So, the whole key is to be vigilant.

And unfortunately it just seems like data breaches are going to be a way of life for a long time.

Not only with our personal information but the government’s. This is what we’re dealing with. Between Russia, and China, and —

It’s cyber-warfare.

It’s all on the computer.

Yeah, cyber-warfare. Yup.

The problems of moving forward in a computerized nation.

844-220-0965 is the number to dial in. Spencer in Orlando. Spencer, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Good morning, Spencer.

Hey, how’s it going?

Okay, how can we help you?

I’ve got a question. What’s the big difference between the Roth and traditional. Like, TSP, 401k.

TSP, that’s the thrift savings plan.

Yeah.

401k can be pre-tax or after tax. A Roth is always put in with after tax money, but the money under current law comes out tax free. And that’s the big distinction. You get a tax deduction for your traditional TSP plan or a 401k plan. If you put the money on a pre-tax basis, you get an immediate tax deduction. With a Roth, you get no tax deduction today with the idea that the money will grow for you tax free and under current law it will come out tax free.

What do you mean by tax deduction?

Well, by tax deduction I mean let’s say you put in $1 and you’re in the 25% tax bracket. Okay, you put $1 in your 401k. It really only costs you $0.75 because you get an immediate 25% savings on that. If you put it in with after tax money, otherwise you put the $1 into a Roth whether it’s a Roth 401k or a Roth IRA, you have to gross $1.33 to end up with the $1 to put in the Roth. Take 25% off $1.33 and you end up with your dollar. So, if you’re in the reasonably high tax bracket, 25, 28, 39, you definitely want to get that tax deduction today. Our concern as a firm, my concern <Inaudible> and probably one of the lone wolves out there, lone people crying in the wind about the Roth and the chances are that they may change the law. I wrote an article several months ago for Kiplinger magazine, it’s still out there on the Internet. It’s called a Roth, A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. Roth, A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, and it will tell you the cons of using a Roth IRA or a Roth 401k for certain people. But does that answer your question?

Yeah, so let’s say I put 20% and I do 13% for a traditional and 7% for the Roth. 31 and then you retire at 67. Is it smart to do the 7% for the Roth or should I ease up on that and put it more towards the traditional where —

It all depends on your personal tax bracket. Are you married?

No. Single.

Okay, what’s your income?

60,000.

So, you’re not in that highest tax bracket. You’re just bumping along here at about — you’re close to 25% tax bracket. You are in the 25% bracket. <Inaudible> regular deductions. You’re in the 25% tax bracket. I would go full hog on the deductible IRA — Roth, deductible 401k. That’s what I would do personally. I like the bird in the hand which is a guaranteed tax deduction today as opposed to a promise that they’re not going to change the tax law somewhere down the road and make my Roth what we call means-tested. You know what means-tested is, Spencer?

No.

Okay. Well, let me give you a little history. Back around 1984, everything up to that point; Social Security — with Social Security was totally tax free. People could get their Social Security check, they didn’t have to pay a penny tax on it. And then they made it what’s called means-tested, which says that if your income is over a certain threshold amount, the government considers you rich and you have to pay taxes on your Social Security up to 85% of your Social Security could be taxed. My concern is with the government’s insatiable need for tax revenue, somewhere down the road they’re going to see these billions of dollars that have never been taxed in Roth accounts and come up with the same bright scheme. You know all these people have all this money in there? They can afford to pay some taxes on it. So, you’re giving up a bird in the hand today, which is the tax deduction, for a promise that the tax laws won’t change. And I’ve been at this business long enough to know that any time congress is in session, your money is in jeopardy. Get the bird in the hand today if you’re in a high enough tax bracket and get that tax deduction. Go on the Internet, read my article; Roth, A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, and it will give you some insight as to why a Roth might not be all that it’s cracked up to be.

Give Spencer the website to do that.

Website — our website is financialgroup.com, but the article is just Google Roth, A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing and the article should come up for you.

He is the oracle of Orlando, Joe Bert, along side Aaron Bert and we are taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. Spencer, thank you so much for the call. We do have to get the three big things you need to know, but right now we are planning tomorrow —

Today —

With the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5 WDBO. Information presented on this program is believed to be factual and up to date, but we do not guaranteed its accuracy and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. Discussions and answers to questions do not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice, but is limited to the dissemination of general information. A professional advisor should be consulted before implementing any of the options presented. Certified Advisory Corp is registered as an investment advisor with the SEC and only transacts business in states where it is properly registered or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. It is 9:28, toward minutes away from the latest news, weather, and traffic right here on News 96.5 WDBO. It is a short segment here with the certified financial planners at Certified Financial Group here at News 96.5 WDBO’s Ask the Expert weekend. Joe Bert, Aaron Bert here taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. Before we get to the latest news, weather, and traffic, let’s get to a text question.

Text question.

Alright, I make $100,000 a year, $600 a month into my 401k. Mortgage is at 4%. Should I put more into the mortgage and less into the 401k?

No.

No?

No.

That simple.

Yeah.

Why?

No? Okay.

Well, first of all, you get 100% tax deduction for the money that you’re putting into the 401k. He’s only putting in $7,200 a year depending on his age he can go up to 18,000 or 24,000. Get a clean 100% tax deduction. He’s got a 4% mortgage and if he’s able to itemize depending on his tax bracket, his effective rate on that is going to be 2.5%, maybe 3%. That’s cheap money. And your mortgage is a forced savings account and paying off the mortgage isn’t necessarily a good idea. Stock money away in the 401k and get that tax deduction <Inaudible>

That’s what I said.

Yeah, but you said no. I added some texture to it.

Yeah, he said why. That’s key.

Well, just like that. You send your text question in, you get an answer. 21232. Just keep it to about 160 characters. 21232. We have Stacy and Tony on the line. Hang on, they’ve got great questions. I want to make sure you’ve got lots of time to get them answered so we have to pause real quick to get the latest news, weather, and traffic from Dave Wall in the News 96.5 newsroom where we are planning tomorrow —

Today —

With the certified financial planner professionals at the Certified Financial Group, Joe and Aaron Bert here on News 96.5 WDBO. And welcome back, this is On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 96.5 WDBO’s Ask the Expert weekend. We are taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965 with Joe Bert and Aaron Bert here live in the studio. Joe, for the people who just joined us during the latest news, weather, and traffic, what can they call you about?

Aaron and I are here to take the questions that you might have on your mind regarding your personal finances, things that might be bugging you about what’s in my IRA or my 401k, about my insurance, life insurance or reverse mortgages. I’m looking at an annuity, what should I consider there? Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, long-term healthcare, IRAs, all that and more we are here to take those questions. And as I like to say, on Monday through Friday we do financial planning for a fee, but on Saturday morning we do it absolutely free. So, if you have any questions on any of those topics or anything else that I might not have mentioned, the good news for you, we sill have a couple of lines open and our text line is there as well. So, <Inaudible> those numbers are:

844-220-0965. That is the number to dial. So, Stacy and Tony are on the line. They’re going to get their question answered here in a minute. 844-220-0965. Wal have the text machine, 21232. Just keep it to about 150 characters. That’s all we can see on our screen here. We don’t want to get Here on our screen here, we don’t want to get important information left out, so 21232. And it’s not only here on the radio, you guys have workshops at the Certified Financial Group.

We do. Today, Gary Abely, CPA and CFP is holding a workshop on financial basics. This is the good the stuff that <Inaudible> they don’t teach you in school stuff you really need to know.

Yeah.

It is absolutely free, leave your checkbook at home, he’s not going to be trying to sell you some annuity or life insurance product or sell you anything. But he gives some very, very good information. It runs about an hour and a half, he’s going to serve some light refreshments and it’ll be held in our big classroom at our office in Altemont Springs, that’s 1111 Douglas Avenue just off of 434 in Altemont Springs. You can go to our website, that’s financialgroup.com, and find a map right there. He’s got about five or six <?> seats available to you that I guarantee if you show up you will definitely get a seat. So that’s once again, 11:00 this morning at our office in Altemont Springs, 1111 Douglas Avenue, get some good information from a certified financial planner professional and a CPA as well. Gary knows his stuff, and I encourage you to attend. Maybe I’ll see you there myself.

Yeah, alright. <Inaudible> enough to be here at 11:00 on my show. Alright, let’s get back to the phone lines here, talk to Stacy in Orlando. Stacy, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group on WDBO.

Hi Stacy.

<Inaudible>

How are you do doing, great. I’m calling on a follow-up question on that a lady had a few minutes ago about she made 180,000, had a $24,000 a year, put into a Roth?

Yep.

Okay, question on that whole scenario is in the amount of years she put in that Roth that she paid taxes into, and then she changes that back to a pre-tax deduction, when it comes down to retirement, how are they going to work that? Does she have any taxes at all with that?

<Inaudible> I’m glad you called because I think you’re a little bit confused there. We’re not saying that she converts her existing Roth —

Oh, okay.

<Inaudible> just keep the Roth portion as it is, all of that money she put in there, she doesn’t want to go out and do something different with it, keep it as a Roth. But going forward, she ought to be putting the $24,000 a year and getting a tax deduction going forward.

Oh, okay. So she keeps it existing <?> but <Inaudible>.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Okay.

I’m glad you called and verified that. That may have been a little bit confusing, but that’s exactly what I meant even though it may not have come out that way. So I really appreciate your call, Stacy.

Okay, no problem. Thanks about that <?>.

<Inaudible>.

Thanks Stacy for the phone call. If you want Stacy’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Tony in Avido is up next. Tony, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hey Tony.

Good morning gentlemen, how are you all?

Great, Tony what’s up?

I am turning 66 in a few years. My fiancee lives in Brazil, and we’ve been talking about when I retire me going there and <Inaudible> get married and live there together. My question is in regards about my retirement plan and my Social Security.

Okay.

If I have that money sent to Brazil, do I pay taxes on it in the US?

Yes.

Or would I pay taxes on it in Brazil as well?

You will pay taxes on it in the US. I cannot speak to what <Inaudible> be in Brazil.

It depends on whether the US has a tax treaty with Brazil, and I don’t know that off the top of my head. But yeah, most likely you will. It also depends on whether you’re going to — are you going to stay a citizen of the US, or your goal is to renounce your citizenship or —

No, I’m going to stay a citizen of the US.

Okay, then you have to come back every year as well, so there’s a lot different planning things that go into eventually wanting to retire overseas. We’re getting this question a lot actually, a lot more people are asking this of us. And there are some great resources online — have you done any research online?

Not yet.

Okay.

The place I would start since I saw your call, Carl kind of gave us the heads-up, I went and Googled retiring abroad. The State Department actually has a pretty extensive website talking about all of the things that you need to consider, and they offer resources from there as well. So go on Google, type in retiring abroad and the State Department website will actually come up. You can go in there and use their resources to get some more information.

It can be done, but you got to keep your head up as to what the ramifications are tax-wise, and as Aaron said about coming back to the United States to maintain your citizenship, so on and so forth. But happy nuptials to you there in Brazil.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

Alright, Tony <Inaudible> hold onto.

Alright Tony, thanks so much. If you want Tony’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. Carl in <Inaudible> is up next. Carl, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Hi, good morning. Thanks for having me.

Sure Carl, what’s up?

My question is really on — I’ve recently moved here from the UK and I’ve come across a hurdle <Inaudible> need to get good credit to buy a house. I have no credit at all and I was wondering if you had any tips to get a good credit rating as quickly as possible.

Ah yes, apply for a credit card and make those payments on a timely basis, that’s the first thing that the credit reporting companies look for is your payment history. So get them credit and pay it off on a regular, consistent basis. Don’t make minimum payments, just pay it off every month, and that will begin to establish credit for you.

Thank you. I heard a rumor that the more credit cards you have, the better or quicker your credit rating increases, is that true?

Well, they use an algorithm in terms of how much credit you have versus what your income is and how much available credit you have and how much you’re using. So I wouldn’t go crazy with it. I would get the two major credit cards, I would get an American Express card and a Visa card. And I would use those cards and make all of the payments every month, and keep your credit clean, and that’s the best way to go. That would get you started <Inaudible>. Okay, and welcome to the good ole’ USA.

Thank you.

No problem.

Alright Carl, thanks so much and yeah welcome to the United States. Let’s go to RJ in Port Orange. RJ, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Yes, good morning guys.

Good morning, how can we help you?

Due to <Inaudible> circumstances, I had to take Social Security early at the age of 62. Now with my business, I only make $8,000 a year. And according to my bookkeeper, I’m only allowed to put in my savings on earned income. I’ve already maxed out my Roth account, so is there any place else that I can take my Social Security money to make an investment?

Yes, but not tax deductible. The tax deductible side is only on <Inaudible> yeah, you can only put earned income into retirement accounts. Now with that <Inaudible> you can — extra money, you can certainly invest on the outside, put it in a mutual fund, and that will allow you to make outside investments, but you can’t put it in a retirement plan. Retirement plan is only — contributions only based on what your earned income is.

Right, okay, alright thank you very much.

You’re welcome.

Okay, appreciate the call.

Thank you.

Here we go.

Alright, just like that.

Alright RJ.

And the phone lines are open, 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965.

<Inaudible> there’s — we’ve had information on the EquiFax data breach once again on our website, that’s financialgroup.com, financialgroup.com. Click on this week’s most read, there’s a great link there and all of the other things there you need to know to hopefully prevent some terrible things happening to you regarding your personal information. Financialgroup.com, Gary Abely once again is having a workshop at our office this morning from 11:00 to about 12:30, going to serve some light refreshments. Everything that <Inaudible> would have talked to you in school about savings and investing and all of that stuff, good stuff. He has a couple of — <Inaudible> he has five or six <?> seat open. Guaranteed, you get a seat, it’s 1111 Douglas Avenue. Once again, information is on our website, financialgroup.com as well as the map. You can just drop in and I’m sure he’ll be glad to accommodate you.

Alright, just like that. Alright, now we’ve got our phone lines in, let’s get back to the text lines, here.

Let’s do it.

You want to get to this top one here: I want to invest 90% Apple stock and 10% in CDs, is that a well-diversified portfolio. And <Inaudible> by the giggles, that maybe not. The new phone is amazing, about $275,000. That’s what the text reads at 21232.

Well if that’s the only thing that you — that’s crazy.

That’s not diversified, I wouldn’t say.

No, no no. What you’re doing is you’re betting the ranch on one company. I mean, can you say Enron?

<Inaudible> Enron, I mean <Inaudible>. I mean yeah. Well, yeah.

But —

It’s extremely <Inaudible> type of approach.

Extremely aggressive. I mean Apple has done well, there’s no question about it — I mean there’s — who knows if it’s going to continue to do well. Any time you invest in any one company, I don’t care what the company is, it’s a high risk, high reward proposition. It’s like walking to the casino and you see black coming up consistently and so you decide to put all of your money on black only to have red come up on the next spin of the wheel. Do not do it. Unless you just want to take a — it’s a high risk, high reward proposition.

If you were the texter, what would you do?

<Inaudible> first of all, they’re going about it the wrong way. Let’s back up. Why in the world do we even invest money? Why do we do it? We do it to get our money to grow so somewhere down the road we’ll be able to draw from that as our source of income to supplement Social Security and whatever else we have. That’s why we do it. So what you want to do is to have a high probability of having the amount of money piled up somewhere down the road that you’re going to need. And what you want to do is look at how much — most people go into the investment world not having any clue as to what they’re doing. All they know is they want to make a lot of money. This is what this is indicative. I want to get the jackpot, I want to get the <Inaudible>

Don’t we all?

At least he’s got 10% in CDs.

Ah yeah, right, right. No.

<Inaudible>

CDs aren’t the greatest options these days either.

This is how we’re totally difference from virtually everybody else that’s out there that wants to sell you something or wants to invest your money. We look at it from a planning perspective first and foremost. How conservatively can you invest the money you have today, and the money that you’re going to be earning in the future and still have a high probability of not running out of money when you’re 95 years old. That’s what planning is all about. That’s why we charge as fee for what we do. We’re not trying to sell you something other than our services. And everybody wants the — these money magazines, it’s their brother-in-law, get tips on the internet, see Apple stock going up, they have no idea — you’ve got focus on number one, what’s you’re number one objective and that’s having a pile of money that you can draw from somewhere when the paycheck stops that’ll carry you through your lifetime. And how conservatively can you invest your money and still have a high probability of making it. And unfortunately, most people chase their tails, try some of this, try some of that, wake up when they’re 55 years old only to find they have <Inaudible> and a financial <Inaudible>. That’s why you want to talk to a certified financial planner professional. That’s what we do day in and day out at the Certified Financial Group. If you want more information, go to our website, that’s financialgroup.com. If I sound like I’m preaching I am because I see the impact that this has on people’s lives, and I can see the disasters that sometimes walk into our office simply because they’ve done what this individual wants to do. Bet the ranch, and it goes well for a while only to end up breaking the leg and starting all over.

Alright, that’s it.

<Inaudible> not going to <Inaudible> then I said it myself.

That’s it. Yeah he did. 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. Kim in Port Orange is on the line, but Kim we are up against a break here so I want to ask you to hang on, we’ll get to you on the other side. If anybody wants to join her, 844-220-0965, or text 21232. Again, Gary Abely’s got a workshop today coming up at 11:00.

<Inaudible> he’ll cover some of this stuff in the workshops. <Inaudible> more of what I just said. Gary is great, is a great teacher. Show up, 1111 Douglas Avenue, go on our website financialgroup.com and you can get all of the information you want.

With the certified financial planning professionals, the Certified Financial Group Joe and Aaron Bert here on News 965 WDBO. Time to get the three big things you need to know.

It is the final segment of On the Money with the Certified Financial Group here on News 965 WDBO, Joe and Aaron Bert on mic three and four ready to answer those questions here, so let’s get right back to the phone calls. Let’s talk to Kim in Port Orange. Kim, good morning. You’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Good morning, Kim.

Hi there. I am 2016 <?>, only make earned income from work of about $1,500. I made the mistake of putting 6,500 into an IRA, so through my tax lady I found out I was being fined by the IRS. It’s only in a 20% <?> paying CD that other $5,000. I’m 50 — turning 59 next month. I heard — I’ve understood possibly at 59, I can start taking that out because it’s just going to <Inaudible>. She said I’ll be fined every year, what are your thoughts on that?

Why don’t you just cash it out? Just take it out of there instead of subjecting yourself to the potential annual fine?

Will I be fined <Inaudible> 10% <Inaudible>?

No, no not —

If I take that at —

No, not on the over contribution, they’re not going to fine you. In fact, they’re going to fine you if you keep the over contribution in there.

Oh, okay. So I can go ahead and just cash that out today <Inaudible> today.

Sure, yes, yes. Yeah, clean that up. That’s where your problem is, is you over contributed to something you should not — your tax person should have told you that.

Yeah, well — okay, alright, thank you so much. I’ll cash it out.

You’re welcome Kim, you’re quite welcome.

Thank you, bye-bye.

Alright Kim, Port Orange, thank you so much. Just like that. So <Inaudible> you don’t get penalized for the overage.

No, no they want you to clean that up because — yeah, yeah. So just take out the overage and <Inaudible> should have <Inaudible>

Well thank you for cleaning that up oracle, I appreciate that. <Inaudible> Get back to the texts. Texts are right to the 21232. If I know I will inherit $100,000 this year, is there something I should do to prepare for this inheritance? My house is paid off and I’m maxing out — well, that’s where we cut it off there. It’s 160 characters, that’s why we <Inaudible> yeah.

Problem maxing out the 401k.

That’s it.

Let’s be sure we understand what maxing out is because people have a misconception about that.

Yeah, we hear that a lot actually. People come into our office asking about their 401k and we go how much you’re contributing? Oh, I’m maxing it out. Oh really? How much are you putting in? I’m putting in 5%. Well, 5% of their salary isn’t max — a lot of people think that maxing it out is just getting up to the maximum match <Inaudible>

Contributions dollars <Inaudible>

From their employer. So really maxing out means if you’re under the age 50, $18,000. If you’re over the age of 50, $24,000. That’s the true maxing out of your 401k plan. So if he is truly maxing out his 401k plan and his house is paid off or her home, we don’t know if this is a he or she. There’s a lot of different things that you could to prepare. First question I would have, are you married? If you’re married, is your spouse also maxing out their 401k if they have one if they’re working? Are you able to put more money into an IRA depending on your income? There’s — do you have any debt? The house is paid off, yeah. Do you have credit cards? What about car loans? A lot of people don’t include car loans as debt. So there’s different things that you can look at. This is a perfect example of someone needing to come in and do some planning. It depends on the age of the person. Are they 30 years old or are they 70 years old. There’s a lot of different factors that go into there. $100,000 is a lot of money to come into, and if you prepare yourself correctly and maybe do something planning, that’s what you really ought to do to prepare, do some planning. You can invest that money appropriately and that will greatly enhance your success for retirement when that time comes.

So when that money comes to you, it probably comes to you totally tax-free so you don’t have to worry about paying and estate taxes or inheritance taxes on it.

That’s good.

And Aaron mentioned the fact that if you’re married and your spouse has a 401k, you can’t take that $100,000 and dump it in that spouse’s 401k. But what you can do is have your spouse max out let’s say the $24,000. And instead of the $24,000 that your spouse will be bringing home over a period of four years, that’s 96,000 for four years, you tap into that $100,000 that you have sitting there in a savings account. And that gets — it makes that $100,000 then tax deductible. So it’s all planned. And that’s what we do day in and day out for our clients.

Alright. That’s about it. We’ve got about a minute left here. Do we have one more — real quick question, why is the 401k tax deductible?

That’s the law. The law says that you — it doesn’t include — show up in your taxable income. So basically you’re getting a clean tax deduction. So when you get your W-2, you have gross income, taxable income, the difference usually is your 401k.

You can take a tax deduction on your 1040 but it just shows up as less income on your W-2 there in essence, tax deductible.

Alright, well <Inaudible> about going to do it for today’s episode of On the Money. Just real quick, Gary Abely’s workshop.

<Inaudible> workshop at our office at 1111 Douglas Avenue, starts at 11:00. Go to our website, financialgroup.com. Click on workshops. Everything you want to know, and you can also get the information on the EquiFax breach. Financialgroup.com, this weeks must read.

Alright, that’s going to do it. Thank you so much for listening On the Money. Stay tuned for Florida Homes and Gardens right here on News 965 WDBO.

Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of On the Money, with the Certified Financial Group, here on News 96.5, WDBO. We are taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965 with Joe Bert and Denise Kovach! Good morning, everyone.

Good morning!

How are you guys today?

Doing great, how are you?

Trying to stay dry and avoid the rain, it’s going to be a wet Saturday.

It’s cool out there this morning, it’s nice, it’s pleasant.

The silver lining to the cloud, that is Joe Bert, your oracle.

A whole lot happened and here we are.

Joe, what can the audience call you about today?

Denise and I are here to answer any questions that might be on your mind regarding your personal finances. As we say, we go through life trying some of this, trying some of that, wake up at age 55 and find out we really need to get our act together and that’s what Denise and I and the other certified financial planner professionals do every day day in and day out for a fee but on Saturday morning we are here for free so if you have any questions regarding your personal finances as they relate to decisions you might have to make about your 401(k), about a mortgage, about stocks and bonds and mutual funds and real estate and long-term health care and IRAs and annuities and reverse mortgages and all that kind of stuff, we are here to take your calls and you don’t even have to use your name. You can pick up the phone and dial these numbers and pretend that you’re Jack or Daphne or Loretta or anybody and we’ll take your call.

All right, just like that!

If you have any questions pick up the phone and dial– what are the numbers?

844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. The text machine is up and running as well, 21232. Just keep it to about 160 characters that’s all we can see on our screen. 21232. Denise Kovach is here, starting off with today’s topic, long-term care insurance if it’s something I need.

Well as you probably know– excuse me, I’m starting to lose my voice already, not a good thing.

Yeah, four words in, not good.

We’re living longer due to health care innovations which is the good news. However, the bad news is that at least 70% of the people over the age 65 will require long-term care services at some point.

Let me give you that number again, 70% of the people over age 65 are going to spend some time needing long-term health care.

And by long-term health care what do you mean there? That’s not just being in the hospital, that means what?

You could have needs for assisted living at home, so home health care. You could be an assisted living facility, which you’re somewhat independent but you’re getting services if you need it, there’s skilled nursing, so that’s a nursing facility, and of course they graduate and so do the prices. So having said that people are often confused that Medicare and private health insurance programs pay for these services but they don’t. Long-term care costs thousands of dollars per month with the average stay being three years. I’m currently looking at an assisted living facility for my mom. A $4,000 down payment is required and the cost of a small one bedroom apartment is just under $4,000 per month plus depending on the level of assistance she’s going to need there’s an additional $700 to $1,700 a month that’s going to be charged on top of that, so what if she wanted a semi-private room, not private, just a semi-private room in a nursing home facility? It just got more expensive and according to Genworth that monthly cost averaged $6,800 in 2016. That was just last year, so —

$80,000 a year.

That’s expensive.

It is expensive.

And that’s average. The most common reasons people require long-term care are dementia, you know, Alzheimer’s, like that–

I got it. I mean, I don’t have it but I understand what you’re saying.

I’m glad you <Inaudible>

You don’t have dementia? I don’t remember.

I hope you have long-term care insurance.

I do. I’m covered.

But dementia, cancer, and stroke. When my dad was alive he was in an assisted living facility because he had dementia. My mom is needing assistance because she has cancer and is fragile. The costs associated with long-term care are high; Medicare will only pay for skilled services or–

Rehabilitative.

Thank you, I needed that. Care in a nursing home for 100 days. Health insurance will pay for some health care service costs but only for specific circumstances and for a very limited time. Medicaid may pay for it but only if you have limited assets and income. Long-term care insurance is a way to cover these costs so what’s available? You can opt to buy a long-term care insurance that you pay for like an automobile policy but if you don’t use it you lose it and premiums can increase over time. Other options include paying a lump sum amount to purchase coverage that will never increase in price, and if you don’t use it it remains a part of your estate. I’m often asked, when is it appropriate, when is it– bleh, I’m having issues today.

Ha ha ha!

Maybe I’m not–

Are you ready for the home? Do you need some more coffee?

Exactly, maybe I need an assisted living– When is it the appropriate time to buy long-term care insurance? I hear that a lot so there’s not a set age at which it is best, however its cost is generally increased with each year that you’re older so you may consider buying it when you’re younger, healthier, and more likely to be approved for coverage. Long-term care costs can easily wipe out your retirement nest egg. If you’re getting older now’s the time to take the step to protect the assets you’ve spent your entire life accumulating and start looking into the appropriate coverage for you.

It is something to consider, there’s no question about it, no question about it. Thank you for your input on that. I’ve got something more I want to add to that but we’ve got some callers here, we’re going to keep them on the line–

Yeah, absolutely. Well, let’s open our phone lines here, 844-220-0965, 844-220-0965. Let’s start off with Mike in Orlando. Mike you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WBDO.

Good morning!

Well, thanks for taking my call.

Thank you for calling. How can we help you?

I want to ask you about individual municipal bonds.

Okay?

Who should own them? Are they better than bond funds during periods of rising interest rates, and what is laddering?

Okay good questions. Let’s talk about laddering first. Laddering you can do with any kind of fixed income security or investment including CDs or bonds, which means you buy them at differing maturities and as the one that matures when the one matures– Let me back up.

I’m sorry, it’s spreading to you.

Ha ha ha!

Which means–

You guys stay over there, I don’t want to get it today.

Just to make the illustration easy you have five different maturities, one year two year three year four year five year, and when the one year maturity matures you take that one and you wrap that into the net– you go out and buy another five year one because you have the one that’s going to mature in two years, mature in two years and you just keep rolling them. That’s what laddering means. So in a rising interest rate environment that’s not a bad thing to do. You follow where I’m coming from here.

Yes. Right. Right.

Well you don’t sound confident.

No, I understand what you’re talking about, laddering. Yeah.

So the next question you had was individual bond bonds–

Munis.

Individual muni bonds.

Yeah. When you buy an individual security you need to know what you’re doing. It’s not just that it’s issued by somebody whose name you’re familiar with, you need to understand the credit rating, you need to understand what backs it up as it was called a general obligation bond which means it’s backed by the full faith and credit of the county or the city that’s issuing them or is it what’s called a revenue bond which means that it’s issued and the revenue from a certain source like the turnpike, you know, turnpike bonds were sold and the revenue from the turnpike can only be used to pay off the turnpike bonds.

Okay.

So that’s how individual bonds are done. Now the nice thing about those is that you hold them to maturity, and you’re sure– well, I can’t say you’re sure but depending on the creditworthiness of the issuer you’ll get your money back. Right? The problem with that is, is you’re — you have your money. Unless you have a lot of money to spread around and a lot of bonds, most people are better off turning it over to a professional using a mutual fund, right, Denise? I would do that because you own more than one bond, which reduces the risk exposure to you. So you own hundreds of bonds. And you’re–

What you’re doing there is have professional managers select those bonds for you. Now you have insured bond funds, where the only kinds of bonds they will buy are insured. You have those, what are called high yield, which means that that man will take you a little bit more risk to get you a little bit higher yield and then the– here’s the thing about bonds and bond funds. A lot of people say well I don’t want to own a bond fund, interest rates go up and the value of the bonds are going to go down, let me tell you my chicken and egg story. You ever heard my chicken and egg story, Denise?

I think I’m getting ready to.

Okay here you go.

When I look at bonds or bond funds I look at the income that you get from the bonds as the egg. Okay? That egg is going to come in on a regular basis and you’re going to spend it and cook it and eat it. The bond itself is the chicken and in a rising interest rate environment that chicken is going to get skinny because the value of that bond will go down. It’s true for bond funds, it’s true for individual bonds. But if you’re investing in bond funds for income forget what the chicken looks like because the eggs will generally be there. And in a bond fund what you’re going to do is you’re going to take that income and either spend it or if you’re in an accumulation phase you’re going to take the income and reinvest it. Now the good news in a rising interest rate environment when the value of the bonds in the bond fund are going down you’re actually buying more shares because the price is cheaper so the amount of income that you’re ultimately going to get is the function of how many shares that you own so if you’re reinvesting in a high interest rate environment you’re buying more shares at a cheaper price to get more income down the road. So I like to use bond funds. I own them, we recommend them for our clients. We generally don’t recommend buying individual bonds and/or individual stocks, what do you want to add to that?

Well, what I want to add to that, Mike, is obviously when you own municipal bonds whether they are individual or in a mutual fund. They are better held outside of any type of IRA or retirement account because the yields are typically lower. However, on a– they’re not taxable. So the tax equivalent yield is higher in that regard if that makes sense. Right Joe?

That’s right.

Okay!

Does that help you, Mike?

Yep.

Lot of information.

Anything else you want to know while we gotcha?

Well I’m having to pay my RMD for the first time next year and I was just concerned if I had too many bond funds would the interest rates go up, I’ve got to start taking money out of my RMDs so I was just– I was just interested in if it had rising interest rates how that would impact my withdrawals through the years.

Rising interest rates, as you withdraw via the bonds are in your IRA account.

Yes.

They’re not municipal bonds, I’m sure.

Yeah, they’re just bond funds.

Bond funds, okay. Yeah, in a rising interest rate environment the value of those bonds will be gradually decreasing. Now there’s a way to mitigate that and that’s in owning the right kind of bond funds and you want to have bonds generally in your portfolio because we call them the shock absorbers in a portfolio. When you have that market correction generally when stocks go down bonds go up so you’re not really getting impacted by the big drop in the stock market, except in a situation like 2008, 2009, when the bond market and stock market throws up simultaneously but in my mind and Denise’s mind it was a once in a lifetime occurrence so we’ll think about it.

Okay.

All right?

All right. Well, thank you.

Thanks for calling, Mike!

All right, Mike, thanks so much. If you want Mike’s line it’s 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. We are about a minute away from the three big things you need to know so Debra in Longwood, hang on the line, you’re going to be first up when we come back but right now we are planning tomorrow–

Welcome back, this is On the Money with the Certified Financial Group, here on News 96.5, WDBO. We are taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965, that’s 844-220-0965. We are five minutes away from latest news, weather, and traffic, so let’s get back to our phone lines. Debra, in Longwood, Debra, you’re on with Joe Bert and Denise Kovach from the Certified Financial Group. Good morning, Debra.

Good morning and thank you for taking my call.

Sure, how can we help you?

I have a quick question. I’m 69 years old, I was wondering what the tax implication is taking $10,000 out of my IRA or incidental expenses that I did not foresee coming this year.

So you’re 69, you said?

I am 69, correct.

Debra, what you’re going to have to do is add that figure onto your ordinary income and you’ll pay your income taxes on that. There’s no penalties because you’re beyond 59 and a half, so you’re just looking at taxes.

So really though it’s no difference between taking it now and taking it when I’m like 70 and a half. Is there a difference, what’s the difference regarding tax implications because those are taxable income, correct?

Correct. There’s no difference.

There is really no difference. Okay, good enough.

At age — Let me back up here.

Go ahead.

If you don’t need it now, at age 70 and a half you have to take it out and you’ll have to —

I understand.

So even if you take money out now at age 70 and a half you’ll still have to take out money, so if you can use the money that you take out now maybe you wait until 70 and a half and don’t have to pay as much on taxes.

Oh perfect. Okay. That’s all I needed. Thank you guys, thank you.

Thank you very much.

We didn’t stutter on that one, did we?

No not yet. It’s early give us time.

Yeah, I saw you get more coffee during the break there. 844-220-0965 is the number to call up a certified financial planner, Certified Financial Group, 844-220-0965. Text is 21232. And we got a text question in here, guys: Is a 457 plan subject to the RMD at 70 and a half RMD is required minimum distribution at 70 and a half?

It is if you’re no longer working for that company. If you’re still working for that company it is not as long as you’re not a 5% shareholder.

Okay. Most people, seems simple enough.

But let me say something, if you do need to take a mandatory distribution because you’re not working for that company and you have IRAs you cannot take a mandatory distribution representing the pooled amount. There’s separate entities, qualified plans versus IRAs. The RMDs must be taken individually from each respective account.

Right.

If it’s a 401(k), the same thing.

Right.

403(b) the same thing.

Okay. Great. Simple enough.

I want to circle back to what Denise was talking about —

I want to say if you want to circle back–

Did want to circle back. Here we go. Circling around. We’re talking about long-term health care or nursing homes and so on and so forth, one of the things that we’ve come to learn is that if you are considering for yourself or a loved one moving into — the first step is using what we call independent living.

Correct.

It’s where you no longer want the big house, you’re tired of the lawn and the maintenance and you just want a nice apartment where they have meals every day in the wonderful dining room and they have the activities and you’re with people of your age and they get on the bus and– that’s independent living. You pay for that and it’s like an apartment, right, but you’re with your peers. Then what happens is as your health deteriorates then you need what’s called assisted living, where you can no longer maybe bathe yourself, clothe yourself, toilet yourself, take medications. You need help getting up in the morning, getting out of the bed, you know, whatever it is, that’s assisted living. And then you may move into maybe what’s the next level is memory care. This is what happens to a lot of people. You know, the dementia sets in and you– it’s memory care. And we’ve seen that time and time again with our clients and parents and loved ones and then you have the skilled nursing home where you’re in the bed and they have the tubes in your nose. What you want to have, ladies and gentlemen, if you’re thinking about making this transition in life is a facility that you look at, be sure that they have all levels of care. If you like that facility what you don’t want to do is uproot Mom or Dad, when they can no longer stay in the independent living side, right?

Correct. And then you have to yank ’em out, you know without any notice, and find them another place to live at perhaps the worst time in their life.

And even provide hospice care. I mean, end of life care needs to be there as well. It’s very important.

So if you’re thinking of making that move, consider looking at something that has all stages of care because life being what it is, chances are you will progress through those life stages and what you don’t want to do is pick up Mom and Dad, because they have to move because the facility that you’re in that they’ve become accustomed to, where they have their friends and family and whatever they have to move because that facility won’t accept them anymore because they need that next level of care.

The change is extremely difficult for them.

The older you are, the tougher it gets. Just ask me.

There you are.

How tough does it get, Joe? No <Inaudible> 844-220-0965 is the number to dial us up if you got a question for the panel today, 844-220-0965 and we also have that text machine up and running. Good old Texty. 21232 is the number to reach us here. Please keep it to about 160 characters, that’s all we can see on our screen, 21232. <Inaudible> an update on what’s going on over there on the Texas coast with Hurricane Harvey and Dave Wahl, <Inaudible> news, weather, or traffic, right here on News 96.5, WDBO.

Hey welcome back! This is On the Money with the Certified Financial Group, here on News 96.5, WDBO, hope you’re driving safe out there in the rain. Please please drive safely in the rain, it is raining the forecast all today but you just heard the weather forecaster <Inaudible> Deion in Severe Weather Center so we’ll keep you updated throughout the day. For right now we are here with the Certified Financial Group taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. Joe Bert and Denise Kovach are here with some great information today. Again, 844-220-0965. We have a text question in, guys, to kick this segment off. Actually it’s Gary Avely, look at that, Gary Avely–

–you also recommend an independent review of their financials at the facility.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, not a bad idea, so Gary texted in, here.

I’m looking at that.

Gary, our–

While we’re on Gary, he’s got a workshop coming up.

He does. And let me tell you a little bit about that. It’s coming up on — It’s–

September 14, right?

No, it’s September 16.

September 16.

Two days off. We’re having issues, Joe. Anyway, Gary’s going to be talking about the financial basics and basically life strategies for success, it’s going to be held in our office on Saturday, September 16, and it’s going to be from 11:00 to 1:00pm, light refreshments will be served so come on out if you’d like to learn about some life strategies for financial success, with Gary Avely in our office.

This is always a very popular workshop; Gary does a great job. Gary is a frustrated educator. He loves teaching. He loves teaching and the nice thing about Gary is he takes a subject that You would think might be complicated and he breaks it down so grade schoolers could understand.

Well, I would say high schoolers could understand it.

High school is —

Which is good!

Which is great, which is terrific, which is terrific. Your brain doesn’t fry up. He gives you good information, it’s absolutely free. The reason we do this, folks, is two reasons. Number one, to show you stuff that you need to do now so you don’t become a financial casualty. Secondly, to introduce you to our firm, what we do as fee-based planners and how we charge our clients, and get you — whether we need planning now or sometimes in the future, you’ll give us an opportunity to earn your business.

And we’ll go through that calendar again coming up later in the show, but let’s get back to our phone calls here. Talk to Peter. Peter, you’re on with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Peter!

Good morning.

Good morning. My question is, my wife was involved in a pretty bad car accident a while ago and she just received a very high settlement. So we put it in the bank until we know exactly what we’re going to do with it. But what we’re wondering is, is it okay to pay off the mortgage on our home? We still owe 260,000 and we were thinking of just paying it off. But then my follow-up question is, if we do pay it off, what do we do with those payments that we’re making right now?

Well first of all Peter, I’m sorry to hear about your wife and I’m hoping that she’s okay. So they you a —

Oh, she is.

Good. Good. Did they give you a lump sum? This is not a structured settlement?

No, this was one lump sum.

Okay. Can you tell me how much that was?

It was over 1M.

Okay, and your mortgage is 200 and —

60.

60?

60, right. 260.

What’s your interest rate on the mortgage?

4.25.

Are you benefiting from a tax deduction with that?

No.

So you’re not itemizing, you’re not taking the interest deduction on your tax return?

That’s a no-brainer, I would pay off that house. Then I would take the funds, if you don’t need those funds perhaps, and are you still working?

Well I’m a disabled veteran, I lost both my legs in Vietnam. And we’re pretty well set. That’s why I wanted to pay off the mortgage, get that off of our heads, and take that money that we’re using now, which is about 1,900 a month, and invest it into something.

Okay. Here’s the challenge that you have, Peter. Right now, you know you have to make that mortgage payment every month, right? And you write that check —

Correct.

Because you don’t want to lose your house and that’s probably one of the first things that you pay because it’s important.

It is.

Alright. Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, that $1,900 is going to come and it’s going to go and it’s going to slip through your fingers. Unless you set yourself up on a systematic, disciplined approach to every month invest that money month in and month out. Because what happens, I’ve seen this time and time again because we’re all human, you have that extra $1,900 in your checking account and we always find a place to use it or give it to somebody or somehow spend it. Right now, you’re making that mortgage payment you know you need to make it. When it comes a payment that you have to make to yourself, unfortunately human nature takes over and one month it’s there, next month it’s not there.

Right.

So psychologically, it might be best for you, financially it might not be the best. What you really should have done is have a plan done.

Oh, absolutely. That’s a given, Peter. Instead of just asking questions here and there, is have somebody, a certified financial planner, perhaps one of us at CFG, to take a look at your overall situation and walk through the different options available for you and your wife in order to maximize your retirement savings. And to work with you on systematically investing that $1,900. Instead of writing a check for $1,900, you can easily have that just boom, taken out of your checking account once a month and automatically invested. Which is a great help to offset what Joe was talking about.

Peter, how old are you?

Right. 68.

And your wife?

She’s 58.

58, okay. Assuming her accident did not give her long-term medical issues, when we do planning we’ve got to look at about 35 years for your wife in life expectancy. That is a long time. So, what you need to do is actually do some planning. You have gotten a windfall we’ll call it. Unfortunately your wife had to have an experience to get that.

Right.

But you have an opportunity to lay a foundation where you and your wife will not have to worry the rest of your life if you planned properly. Unfortunately, what most people do, you’re going to do the thing that we’ve all be taught to do. Pay off the house, then you take the money and you stuff it in the bank. Then as time goes on, what’s going to happen is you’re going to start eating into that principal because the principal isn’t growing fast enough to keep up with the increasing cost of gasoline, groceries, electricity and all that other stuff that you want to do over the next 25, 30 years. Plan is what will work for you, what that will tell you is how conservatively you can invest that money and still have a high probability of your wife not running out of money when she’s 90 years old. So whether you work with us or another certified financial planner in Central Florida, that’s what I would suggest you do. You want to work with somebody that’s going to charge you a fee to do that. Don’t go somewhere where they say they’re going to do the plan for free, they’re going to give it away, come in, I’ll do a plan for you. Because they’re trying to sell you something. When we do it a Certified Financial Group, we do it in detail, we design something specifically for you. The cost is a lot less. I hear this time and time again where people expect it’s going to be, but the idea is to just give you peace of mind. Like I said, whether you work with us or anybody else in Central Florida, you and your wife should have a plan. I appreciate your call, Peter.

Thank you.

Thank you so much guys. Good day. Bye bye.

Alright, thanks so much. If want Peter’s line, it’s 844-220-0965. That’s 844-220-0965. Joann in Orlando has a comment about the long-term care insurance. Joann, go ahead. You’re one with Certified Financial Group on WDBO. <sp?>

Good morning, Joe.

Good morning!

I’m a client of yours and I just wanted to make a comment on long-term care.

Okay.

I’m 59 years old and I’ve had long-term care insurance with Genworth. I know it’s very — there’s lots of other companies out there. Like I said, I’ve been there for 15 years I’ve had them. I had an unfortunate accident this spring at my house. I fell and I broke my leg and fractured my hip. So I went to the hospital, went through rehab and everything else and I exhausted all my primary care and deductibles and everything. I still needed rehab and was sent to an assisted living facility for just the rested <?> short care. Genworth picked up the entire bill. I was quite young at that time, and I’d say anybody, go get the insurance. It’s well worth the money even if you never use it.

Well, it’s like insurance, you know, we never want to —

Any insurance.

You never want to pay the premium —

Correct.

Until you smell the smoke and the house is burning down.

Yeah.

And then you’re glad you have it.

Yep. yep. I don’t know, there’s so many companies out there, but not a plug for Genworth, but they are top notch. You get to talk to people that know what they’re talking about and they talk in a language you can understand. You know.

Well I appreciate the call and I’m glad — you’re home now, right?

Yeah, I’m at home now. Very cautious about my living conditions here. But you learn to appreciate your health in a hurry.

No joke <?> about that.

I appreciate your call very much.

Yeah thanks so much, Joann. For the record, that’s what we call a plug.

Laugh.

844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. You want to jump in on the conversation. George in Orlando! George, you’re on with the Certified Financial group here on WDBO.

Good morning, George.

Morning.

Morning, guys. How are you? By the way I know that company from the last caller is great, great company to be with. Anyway. Reverse mortgage, 60 years of age, do you recommend it?

You’re not eligible until you’re 62, George.

62? That would make the trick. So you can only apply at 62 years for it?

That’s correct under the current guidelines A62. While we’re on that, unfortunately reverse mortgages have gotten themselves a bad name over the years.

Unfortunately, they have.

The reason being is because people oftentimes — not oftentimes, but on some occasions, they will strip out all the equity out of their home, they will get this big lump sum of money, and what they will do is they end up blowing it. They go on vacations and buy the cars and give money to their kids and yadda, yadda, yadda. All this money was in their equity, they just blew all the equity in their home, and then they don’t have enough income to pay the property’s taxes and insurance, which you still have to do under any circumstances, and they end up losing their home. That’s the worst thing that you can do with a reserve mortgage. There have been some recent articles written in the financial planning journals about using a reverse mortgage as a safety net for you to draw from when that inevitable correction comes and your investments are down. What you do is you turn on the valve on the reverse mortgage and you draw a little bit from the reverse mortgage and wait until the market heals and turns itself back on around, then you turn off the reverse mortgage and you continue drawing from yours accounts. It’s been statistically proven, it’s been factually proven that it’s a very, very powerful tool if used correctly. Unfortunately, most people don’t use it correctly. So, if you want more information about that, I’d be glad to send you an article that was written in financial planning journal, just contact me, joe@financialgroup.com. We don’t sell reverse mortgages, we don’t do reverse mortgages, but we do know the power of them if they’re used correctly.

And one of the benefits is if you think about it, if your income level is at a point where your Medicare premium costs are high, if you take from the reverse mortgage, that’s not taxable. So it could reduce that premium cost.

That’s correct.

Good point! Very, very good point.

Yep, you betcha.

In fact, while we’re on reverse mortgages, I had an e-mail from one of my clients this week who in fact had a reverse mortgage and he paid it off. When you pay off the reverse mortgage, you get the big interest deduction. So in one year, he did not have any — he was able — let me back up. He was able to shift his income to where he took a lot of income because he had this big interest deduction. Then the subsequent year, he didn’t have to take the income so he had no taxable income. The point I’m trying to make is that there is a senior homestead exemption if you’re over the age of 65 and your income is under — he’s in Volusia county, it’s about $29,000 or less. Your adjusted gross income, which is the income on the front page of your 1040, you are entitled to an extra homestead exemption. In his case, he got an extra savings of $800, $900.

Really?

Yes. However, it expires, at least in Volusia county, on September 1st. So if you’re in that situation, have low income, adjusted gross income, and if you’re over the age of 65, you may want to check on that. You may be entitled to reduce your property taxes because the bills have just <Inaudible> on their way.

Huh.

Interesting.

There you go.

Yes.

Ah, <Inaudible>.

That’s why we’re here.

Amen.

Planning tomorrow today.

Bye George, thanks so much for the phone call. It’s 844-220-0965 if you would like George’s line. Again, the number 844-220-0965. We are coming up on the final segments. It’s your last chance to get your question answered. Text machine is up and running, as well. 21232. I see some text questions here. We’ll get to those on the other side. Right now it’s time to get the three big things you need — and welcome back to On The Money here on news 96.5 WDBO’s ask the experts weekend. We have Joe Byrd and Denise Kovas, certified financial planner professionals from Certified Financial Group taking your phone calls at 844-220-0965. That’s 844-220-0965. We are five minutes away from the latest news, weather, and traffic, so let’s get back to our conversations here with our great callers. Ness in Kissimmee. Ness, you’re up next. You’re with the Certified Financial Group here on WDBO.

Good morning, Ness!

Morning.

Yes, good morning, good morning guys. Thanks a lot for taking my call. My question is, I have Medicare, actually I’m retired. I’m just wondering whether the program that I have with Freedom Health is sufficient enough that I don’t need insurance, because you guys were talking about insurance for retirement for health insurance.

Okay, well you’re talking about what you have is Medicare supplement, which picks up with part B —

Correct.

Of your Medicare doesn’t cover. So you have the basic —

Right.

Medicare. You go in the hospital, you’re going to pay for the hospital, the part B’s going to pick up the doctor’s cost. What we were talking —

Right.

Is what happens when they take you out of the hospital then you can’t go home because you have to be taken care of? Or you don’t even go to the hospital —

Right.

And you end up in a nursing home for some reason.

Mhm.

Right.

Yeah, we’re talking about long-term care insurance.

Long-term healthcare. That’s not Medicare.

Okay. Okay. So it’s long-term healthcare insurance.

That’s correct.

Okay.

It’s to pick up what your basic Medicare does not cover. As Denise said, Medicare — if you go from the hospital, my understanding is if you’re in the hospital for three days and you go into a facility, directly in the facility, Medicare will pick up the first 100 days.

Correct. For skilled services.

Right.

For skilled services.

It’s very limited.

But you will find, and I found this out dealing with my dad who unfortunately has passed away. The hospitals watch that three day clock, they’ll push you out on the curb after two days because they don’t want that three days because you go directly in the facility and Medicare kicks in. So I’m going to tell you, you’ve got to be very, very careful when it comes to how that whole situation works. The other thing is we have learned, if you go in the hospital, you have to be sure that you’re admitted, not under observation. Because if you go in under observation, Medicare part A doesn’t cover — you’re not covered.

Huh.

It’s only if you’re admitted. So you want to be —

Right.

Careful when you go in the hospital that you’re admitted. People say, well I’m in the hospital, I’ve been here two days! I’m admitted! No, you’re not. You might be under observation. Be sure that you’re talking to somebody, be sure that you know what the deal is.

Alright, Ness, that help you?

<Inaudible>.

Okay.

Okay.

So then, you guys do have that kind of insurance policy or something? A backup?

We have different options.

Yes, there are different insurance policies available depending on your needs. Absolutely.

Could you guys send me a list or something that I could go by and see what the prices are going to be?

Why don’t you give us a call at the office and we can have a conversation? Our number is 407-869-9800. Give us a call and we can help you out. Okay.

Alright, Ness. Thanks so much for the phone call. If you want on Ness’ line, it’s 844-220-0965.

Let’s circle back to Gary, Gary Abley, our colleague sent us about five consecutive texts here about the situation in nursing homes, which is very, very important. I didn’t get it on the first text. But why don’t you read those?

Okay. We can start off here from number one. We also recommend an independent review of the financials of the facility. My in-laws were in a facility in Tampa that is now bankrupt, elevators not working, limited dining, etcetera. Taxes could be higher on IRA distributions if someone waits to take it when also drawing Social Security. That’s two fun facts.

Yes, but the important thing is — and this is critical, because if you go in a facility and you —

And you go bankrupt.

To be there the rest of your life —

It’s a probably.

Yes.

Now you’re about on the streets and maybe if you paid a down payment or who knows what and it’s — yes. That’s another good point, Gary. Appreciate it very much.

Thanks, buddy.

Gary’s got that workshop coming up, right Denise?

Yep.

Plug those workshops, got one minute left.

It is. Dag durn. It’s coming up quickly too. September 16th in our offices. It’s going to be that Saturday from 11:00 until 1:00pm. He’ll be serving light refreshments. He’ll be talking about financial basics. Your life strategies for success in financials. So come out and visit Gary. He’s got some good information. Again, it’s in our offices on September 16th from 11:00 to 1:00.

Our office is in Altamont Springs just south of 434. You can go to our website, financialgroup.com. Financialgroup.com. Click on workshops, you make a reservation right there. In addition to being a certified financial planner professional, Gary is also a CPA. Highly qualified and a great educator. Hope to see ya there!

Yeah, wow. That was a fast hour today!

How about that?

It seemed fast to you, eh, it was fast. Alright.

Yep.

Well, hope next Saturday at 9:00am will be just as fast. That’s when we will be back here with the certified financial planner professionals of the Certified Financial Group planning tomorrow —

Today!

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